Donald Trump meets Ron DeSantis in bid to close funding gap with Joe Biden

Donald Trump has met privately with Ron DeSantis as the former president seeks to enlist donors who backed the Florida governor for president.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has held talks with Donald Trump for the first time since he abandoned his bid for the White House in January. Picture: Getty Images

Donald Trump has met privately with Ron DeSantis as the former president seeks to enlist donors who backed the Florida governor in their rival campaigns for the Republican nomination.

The two men held talks for several hours in Miami in their first direct communication since Mr DeSantis ended his White House campaign in January after suffering a heavy defeat to Mr Trump at the caucuses in Iowa, the first state to hold a contest.

Mr DeSantis, 45, is said to have initiated the meeting to bury the hatchet with his future presidential ambitions in mind, while Mr Trump, 77, was also keen to patch up their relationship with an eye on the governor’s wealthy support network.

The rapprochement was brokered by Steve Witkoff, according to The Washington Post. Mr Witkoff, like Mr Trump, is a New York property developer who has relocated to Florida and knows both men.

Mr DeSantis is said to have agreed to help Mr Trump as he seeks to close a fundraising gap with President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.

Mr DeSantis suspended his presidential campaign two days before the New Hampshire primary, the second state of the election season, in January. He endorsed Mr Trump but has not campaigned for him.

He was critical of Mr Trump and some of his team during a phone call in February with key supporters, saying: “I think he’s got people in his inner circle who were part of our orbit years ago that we fired, and I think some of that is they just have an axe to grind.”

This was seen as a reference to Susie Wiles, a veteran political operative who ran Florida for Mr Trump in 2016, then worked with Mr DeSantis on his first campaign for governor in 2018, before a falling out in 2019 led her to join Mr Trump and become his de facto campaign joint chief of staff.

Chris LaCivita, her fellow joint chief of staff, responded at the time by calling Mr DeSantis a “sad little man”. But while there remains some bad blood between the two camps, Mr Trump appears willing to forgive and forget.

He welcomed the endorsement from Mr DeSantis, saying that he would stop calling the Florida governor by the nickname he regularly used: “Will I be using the name Ron DeSanctimonious? I said that name is officially retired.”

The Times