Donald Trump Jr. isn’t done campaigning against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the undeclared potential rival to his father for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Despite recent polls that have shown former President Donald Trump widen his early lead over DeSantis — with Trump’s support among Republicans increasing dramatically after his arraignment in New York City — Team Trump hasn’t relaxed about the DeSantis challenge, meaning DeSantis is still being perceived as a threat.
Trump Jr. shared a tweet last night that featured video of DeSantis receiving a “warm welcome” at Liberty University, where a big crowd of students enthusiastically greeted the governor with cheers as he entered the arena — and at the beginning of his speech. But Trump chose a tweet that portrayed both the enthusiasm and the candidate as fake and weak.
DeSantis, as is his custom, opened by bringing “greetings from the free state of Florida.” The Governor then launched into the story of his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis in 2021, thanking the Liberty students for praying for her, and saying how “tough” it had been as a family.
The only big crowds DeSantis can get are students who are forced to attend. Many of whom probably support Trump.
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) April 14, 2023
This is so lame and disingenuous. https://t.co/gdprIJrfAH
Trump Jr. chose to retweet a highly critical take on DeSantis’s performance by self-proclaimed populist Gavin Mario Wax, who called the clip of DeSantis telling the story of his wife’s cancer diagnosis, “so lame and disingenuous.”
He also pushed the theory that DeSantis can’t genuinely compete with Trump in stoking the base and bringing the crowds, writing that the “only big crowds DeSantis can get are students who are forced to attend.”
[Trump, of course, has been historically strong in drawing large crowds to rallies and is known to be sensitive to any indication that his crowds arehave been underestimated.]
[NOTE: The “free state of Florida” claim is DeSantis’s calling card, so much so that even potential Democratic rivals like California Governor Gavin Newsom have knocked it — Newsom Slams Ron DeSantis For “Freedom BS”.]
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