Former President Donald Trump suggested that his attacks against his Republican challenger Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are personal in the second part of his exclusive interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, saying that he finds it "very disloyal" that DeSantis joined the 2024 presidential race after he helped him get elected in Florida.
Trump, who is battling DeSantis for the GOP presidential nomination, was discussing the COVID response of several Republican governors when he invoked the Florida governor's nickname, "Rob DeSanctimonious" during the second part of the hour-long interview that aired Tuesday on "Special Report."
"Why do you use that name?" Baier interjected.
"I got him elected," Trump replied. "And I thought it was very disloyal when he said ‘Yes, I’d run.’ I got him past two races."
"I’m a big loyalist," Trump continued. "Some people right here in this room tell me ‘sir don’t worry about loyalty, it doesn’t mean anything in politics.’ I said, to me it does. I got the guy elected."
Trump said DeSantis was "dead politically" before he endorsed him in 2017 Florida governor.
"I got the guy elected. He came to see me, let’s say weeping because he was dead. He was getting out of the race. He was looking for jobs already. Probably at law firms or wherever he is going to look. He was totally dead. He ran a horrible campaign…it was like a wipeout. The election was going to be very soon. I said you are dead. If George Washington endorsed you are not going to win," Trump told Baier.
Trump said he decided to "give it a shot" and endorsed DeSantis on Twitter. At the time, Trump called DeSantis a "brilliant young leader" who "loves our country and is a true leader."
"It was like a bomb went off," Trump recalled. "As soon as I endorsed him, he won the primary. It was over. He won by a landslide."
TRUMP CAMPAIGN CONTINUES TO PUSH FALSE NARRATIVES ABOUT DESANTIS: HERE ARE FIVE EXAMPLES
Trump went on to headline three rallies for DeSantis during the gubernatorial race, he said, adding that he considered it a blatant betrayal when he later heard DeSantis was considering joining the race for the 2024 GOP nomination, of which Trump is the current frontrunner.
"Three years later, they asked him are you going to run against the president? He said I have no comment. I said no comment? No comment means he's going to run. I said this guy is going to run! And he was dead as a doorknob. I didn’t help him 90%. I helped him 100%. This guy was dead politically for him to then say I’m going to run against the guy that got me in office? I didn’t need that," Trump said.
Asked whether he perceives DeSantis to be the most threatening GOP challenger, Trump said plainly, "Well, he is the number two right now, Yeah."
Trump pointed to polls that show him holding a wide lead over DeSantis before adding, "He could be replaced. The way he is going right now. He is dropping like a rock. He could be number three and number four and you won’t ever hear me talking about him again," he said.
Trump and DeSantis have been engaged in an increasingly bitter war of words as they battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Since declaring his candidacy for president in May, DeSantis has been stepping up his counterattacks against Trump, who’s been blasting his main GOP rival with blistering attacks on his record.
