On Saturday, after Donald Trump insulted Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, many conservative intellectuals who generally back the former president turned against him.
Trump poked fun at DeSantis at a rally in Pennsylvania by referring to him as “Ron DeSanctimonious” when previewing the 2024 Republican presidential contest. Both are considered frontrunners for the Republican nomination, although DeSantis has not indicated he would run. Just three days before the midterm elections, Trump was blamed for fostering divisiveness among his fans.
“DeSantis is a highly successful conservative governor who has achieved substantial cultural and policy objectives. Trump’s feeble effort at comedy will not help him win this election. Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire and the Tea Party movement fame stated, “Hopefully, he has something more serious up his sleeve.”
Also, “excellent job starting your public attack against the most popular conservative governor in the United States three days before the midterm elections when we were all meant to present a united front,” he remarked.
The senior editor of The American Conservative, Rod Dreher, said, “What an idiot!” If you want a leader who gets things done, as opposed to one who just talks an excellent game and has the support of the liberals, then DeSantis is a better option than Trump.
Trump boasted on Saturday about how far ahead he is in the Republican primary polls for 2024.
“A campaign for the Republican nomination has never been more successful than this one. “Take a look at the numbers: 71% for Trump and 10% for Ron DeSanctimonious,” Trump says. “At seven o’clock, Mike Pence exceeded my expectations by performing better than anticipated. No way Liz Cheney could be at 4%. Certainly not. Certainly not. However, the score is 71 to 10 to 7 to 4.”
A presidential straw poll at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit revealed that 78.7 percent of attendees want Trump to be the 2024 Republican candidate.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in August, 69% of those who participated in a straw poll said they would vote for Trump in the 2024 election. Only 24% of voters ultimately chose DeSantis.
However, multiple surveys have already projected DeSantis’s victory in the 2024 Republican primary. The governor has a slight lead over Trump in a hypothetical June Republican primary, according to the research of New Hampshire Republicans. According to the study, 39% of prospective Republican primary voters in New Hampshire prefer the first-term governor of Florida, while 37% back the former president.