TRUMP FORCE ONE — The nickname “meatball Ron” is “too crude” to use to describe Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump told the Daily Caller.
“I don’t use that name. It’s used by other people. I don’t like that name, I think it’s too crude,” Trump told Daily Caller chief national correspondent Henry Rodgers en route to Iowa. (RELATED: Trump Makes First Iowa Stop For 2024 Campaign, Announces Leadership Team)
“I’m a very non-crude individual,” Trump added, laughing.
“Meatball Ron” was reported to be used by Trump in private to describe the potential 2024 contender, according to the New York Times, but Trump has since denied that he uses that nickname.
“All of the Fake News is reporting that I spend large amounts of my time coming up with a good ‘nickname’ for Ron DeSanctimonious, who is obviously going to give the presidential ‘thing’ a shot. They are all 100% wrong, I don’t even think about it – A very unimportant subject to me!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in February.
NOW: Trump boarding the plane to Iowa: pic.twitter.com/f2PKe5DeAE
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) March 13, 2023
Trump added that “DeSanctus” — a nickname that he has publicly used to refer to DeSantis — refers to “when you do something for somebody and they don’t reciprocate.”
“I use the name Ron DeSanctimonious or Ron DeSanctus, which is just a shorter version, I used them both. I can’t use ‘DeSanctimonious’ twice in the same paragraph … they actually work quite nicely together. Some people like them, some people don’t,” Trump continued.
DeSantis “was out of politics, he would’ve had to go and work for some law office or something, and he came to me, he asked for an endorsement. I said, ‘you are so dead right now, no endorsement is going to save you. George Washington won’t save you.’ And he said, ‘I’m telling you, if you endorse me, I have a chance.’ He was one of many, many congressmen that voted for me on the impeachment hoax, and I figured why not, so I gave him the endorsement,” Trump said.
Years following Trump’s endorsement, DeSantis refused to say whether he would run against him for president, Trump said.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” the former president recalled saying at the time.
“He was dead as a dog. He was a dead politician” before the endorsement, Trump said.
“But I never used the word ‘meatball.’ I don’t know, I don’t like that,” he concluded.