The GOP’s midterm failure has accelerated the power struggle between Donald Trump and Ron DeSandis, and if Trump’s latest moves are any indication, the 2024 GOP primaries are about to get ugly, and fast.
Republicans descended on Florida on Tuesday night, with DeSantis up for re-election as governor and Sen. Marco Rubio doing the same. Things weren’t so rosy in MAGAland, where a number of Trump-backed candidates lost big. The opposition was enough for the New York Post to put the Florida governor on their cover and label him “DeFuture.”
The cover infuriated Trump when he saw it on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter and another person briefed on the matter. For decades, Trump has been a staunch admirer (and sometimes whiny critic) of the Murdoch-owned right-wing tabloid. But on Wednesday, the former president trashed the paper as “rubbish,” the person familiar with the situation said, and complained about the Post and other Murdoch properties’ insufficient subservience to Trump. (A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.)
Trump has asked his advisers to monitor the Republicans’ high-profile stance in 2024, watching for signs that they are moving away from the former president and toward DeSandis or other potential challengers, the first source tells Rolling Stone. And Trump has for months regularly insulted De Sandys behind his back, accusing him of, among other things, being a MAGA rip-off artist who constantly steals from Trump and the former president’s family.
As he prepares to announce his own 2024 run, Trump has sought dirt on DeSantis and other potential challengers, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngin. Trump has also spread gossip about DeSantis, including unverified claims about his private life. Rolling Stone refuses to repeat what Trump said.
This type of hoarding and spreading gossip is a common Trump habit, one that he carried into the White House even when dealing with foreign leaders and highly sensitive U.S. intelligence agencies. He uses it against DeSantis while also stepping up his public attacks.
Since last year, both men have tried, for mutual political benefit, to keep their feud shrouded from public view, but in recent days Trump has become more publicly competitive. Before election results came in Tuesday, Trump threatened to release information about the governor. “I’m going to tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on his private jet after departing from a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Monday. “I know more about him than anyone except his wife, who actually runs his campaign.”
One of Trump’s lawyers went after DeSandis during a recent rally, saying the governor owes his success to Trump. “DeSantis is DeSantis because of Trump,” Trump’s attorney Alina Habba said at a Monday rally in Ohio, the Daily Beast reported. “He needs to stay in Florida,” she added.
The results appear to have angered Trump, judging by his posts Wednesday on his app, Truth Social. Trump wrote on Wednesday: “Now that the Florida election is over and everything went really well, it goes without saying that in 2020, I got 1.1 million more votes in Florida than Ron Dee did this year, 5.7 million to 4.6 Million; Just asking?”
Trump ran in a general election, when turnout is consistently much higher than in midterm elections. And when it comes to the results of those midterms, Trump has defended his record, despite losses to high-profile candidates. “While in some respects yesterday’s election was somewhat of a disappointment, in my personal view it was a very big win – 219 WINS and 15 losses in the General – Who has ever done better than that?” He wrote.
Not everyone was so impressed with Trump’s record. The New York Post on Thursday went after the former president again. “Trumpty Dumpty” read the cover line below an egg-shaped rendering of the former president. “Don (who couldn’t build a great wall) had a big fall — can all the men of the GOP put the party back together?”
