Donald Trump unleashes on Ron DeSantis in bizarre rant

Donald Trump has gone nuclear on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a bizarre and rambling statement as the Republican civil war explodes.

Donald Trump has gone nuclear on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a bizarre and rambling statement as the Republican civil war over the 2024 presidential nomination explodes.

The former President — who has been branded “toxic” by a growing faction of his own party following Tuesday‘s lacklustre midterm elections — took the gloves off on Thursday with a lengthy attack on Mr DeSantis, now considered by betting markets as the most likely 2024 candidate.

Mr DeSantis, 44, won re-election on Tuesday in an enormous landslide, while the widely predicted “red wave” largely failed to wash over the rest of the country as a number of Trump-backed candidates fell short.

After earlier taking some mild jabs at his rival, including debuting the nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious”, Mr Trump, 76, appears to have been enraged by Thursday’s New York Post front cover branding him “Trumpty Dumpty”.

NEW: Trump goes postal on DeSantis 👇 pic.twitter.com/WoXM0AEY2S

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 10, 2022

“Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?” the cover read, pointing to an article by political analyst John Podhoretz.

In his statement, Mr Trump took aim at both Mr DeSantis and News Corp — publisher of news.com.au — accusing the Governor of mishandling the state’s Covid response while also taking credit for his election in 2018.

“NewsCorp, which is Fox, theWall Street Journal, and the no longer great New York Post (bring back Col!), is all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious, an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn’t have to close up his State, but did, unlike other Republican Governors, whose overall numbers for a Republican, were just average — middle of the pack — including Covid, and who has the advantage of SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was, just like I did!” the statement began.

To note, Fox and News Corp are two separately listed companies.

Donald Trump has declared war on Ron DeSantis. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

“Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017 — he was politically dead, losing in a landslide to a very good Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam, who was loaded up with cash and great poll numbers. Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win. I didn’t know Adam so I said, ‘Let’s give it a shot, Ron.’ When I Endorsed him, it was as though, to use a bad term, a nuclear weapon went off. Years later, they were the exact words that Adam Putnam used in describing Ron’s Endorsement. He said, ‘I went from having it made, with no competition, to immediately getting absolutely clobbered after your Endorsement.’

“I then got Ron by the ‘Star’ of the Democrat Party, Andrew Gillum (who was later revealed to be a ‘Crack Head’), by having two massive Rallies with tens of thousands of people at each one. I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart. I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen …

“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.

“This is just like 2015 and 2016, a Media Assault (Collusion!), when Fox News fought me to the end until I won, and then they couldn’t have been nicer or more supportive. The Wall Street Journal loved Low Energy Jeb Bush, and a succession of other people as they rapidly disappeared from sight, finally falling in line with me after I easily knocked them out, one by one. We’re in exactly the same position now. They will keep coming after us, MAGA, but ultimately, we will win. Put America First and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Trump had raged on his Truth Social platform, blasting reports that he was angry over several of his hand-picked candidates losing their races.

Ron DeSantis at a Make America Great Again rally in 2020. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

“For those many people that are being fed the fake narrative from the corrupt media that I am Angry about the Midterms, don’t believe it,” he said. “I am not at all angry, did a great job (I wasn’t the one running!), and am very busy looking into the future. Remember, I am a ‘Stable Genius’.”

The latest blow-up comes as Republicans raise fears Mr Trump could derail the upcoming Georgia run-off election which will likely determine if Democrats retain control of the Senate.

Neither the Democrats’ Raphael Warnock nor the Republicans’ Herschel Walker, endorsed by Mr Trump, got more than 50 per cent of the vote in the state’s Senate race — sending the two men to a head-to-head rematch on December 6.

While many conservatives put the blame for Tuesday’s underwhelming midterms squarely on Mr Trump and said it was time to move on, others blamed the “establishment” Republican leadership.

But Thursday’s declaration of war on DeSantis has turned off many of his supporters.

Phone is blowing up. Even staunch Trump allies are cringing at this rant against DeSantis. https://t.co/5eFwZePvRl

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) November 10, 2022

I was genuinely excited to see a primary fight between these two. I think that’s what would be best for the country.

But apparently Trump is going to just embarrass himself and go down in flames and I’ll be honest, it saddens me a little. Not how the Trump era should end. https://t.co/CYVIcIsW4i

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) November 10, 2022

And PLEASE do not think I am having a go at anyone preferring DeSantis. That’s your right and your choice and nothing to do with me! I’m just saying don’t expect Trump to sit quietly while the machines move against him again. This primary season will be ROUGH! Get used to it!

— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) November 10, 2022

“Phone is blowing up. Even staunch Trump allies are cringing at this rant against DeSantis,” tweeted Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.

Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly said, “I was genuinely excited to see a primary fight between these two. I think that’s what would be best for the country. But apparently Trump is going to just embarrass himself and go down in flames and I’ll be honest, it saddens me a little. Not how the Trump era should end.”

He added, “If Trump is dumb enough to attack the guy EVERY Republican in America is currently happy with, this primary is already over. He’s gonna lose at least half his support to DeSantis overnight.”

But Raheem Kassam from The National Pulse wrote, “I like Ron DeSantis! Should totally be President some day, as I told him back in 2015 when I first met him! But why are DeSantis people upset that Trump is hitting back when they’ve all been briefing nasty things about Trump for months now!? You wanted the fight! Embrace it!”

He added, “And PLEASE do not think I am having a go at anyone preferring DeSantis. That’s your right and your choice and nothing to do with me! I’m just saying don’t expect Trump to sit quietly while the machines move against him again. This primary season will be ROUGH! Get used to it!”

On Wednesday, Mr Trump insisted that the midterm election results had not changed his plans to make a “major” announcement from Mar-a-Lago on November 15 – where he is expected to formally announce his run for president in 2024.

“We had tremendous success,” he told Fox News Digital. “Why would anything change?”