Former President Donald Trump explained why he thinks Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis should drop out of the 2024 presidential election.
Trump, the current frontrunner and biggest rival of DeSantis, credited himself with the governor gaining national popularity and added he should have waited longer to run. He argued the Republican Party is better off without DeSantis.
“I think he has to get out for the good of the party,” Trump told “Real America’s Voice” on Friday. “He could have waited and he would have been odds-on favorite for ’28 but he didn’t do that. I got him elected. If it weren’t for me he wouldn’t be governor, he’d be working in a law office right now or doing whatever he was going to do.”
The former president has repeatedly touted how he got DeSantis elected in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election. He once referred to DeSantis as an “average governor” who only and said he was “politically dead” before his support. (RELATED: Trump Calls DeSantis An ‘Average’ Governor, Says He Was ‘Politically Dead’ Before Endorsing Him)
“He was dead. When I endorsed him, he came begging for an endorsement, when I endorsed him he had a couple of like a rocket ship,” Trump continued. “One day! One day! He was losing at a level that you would never even believe possible,” Trump told the Real America’s Voice host. “I even said, ‘I don’t think that if George Washington came back from the dead, if Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead, I don’t think they could help you Ron, you’re dead.'” (RELATED: Trump Team Unveils ‘Pudding Fingers’ Ad Against DeSantis)
DeSantis has expressed optimism about his odds against Trump, vowing to keep working hard for a “favorable response.”
“This is going to be a state-by-state contest,” DeSantis said in a July 10 statement. “We’ve worked really hard to build the type of organization in places like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina that you need to actually be able to win these early [nominating] contests. And we’re gonna continue doing that. We got a lot of work, but we’ve had a very, very favorable response.”
When Trump ran in 2016, he abandoned his pledge to support the Republican nominee. He signed onto the pledge in August 2015 and switched his position in March 2016. He has not pledged to support the 2024 nominee if he were not to get the nomination.
Trump opined that former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams may be a better governor than Brian Kemp, the Republican incumbent.
“Of course, having her I think might be better than having your existing governor, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said at a 2021 rally, followed by boos from the crowd. “Might very well be better.”
A FiveThirtyEight poll averaged Trump at 52% support and DeSantis standing at 15% among potential Republican voters.