>>15405385

DeSantis will NOT bend the knee to Trump: Florida Gov. says backing ex-president for 2024 now 'is too much to ask' after Trump attacked him for being 'dull' and having 'no charisma'

Jan 18, 2022

"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a once-loyal member of Donald Trump's court, is refusing to bend a knee to the former president and says backing him in the 2024 election 'is too much to ask' after Trump publicly attacked his character.

Trump allegedly branded popular governor as having 'no personal charisma' and a 'dull personality' as rumors swirl the ex-president is angry DeSantis hasn't declined to challenge him for the GOP presidential nomination.

DeSantis, however, has told his inner circle that Trump's 'expectation that he bend the knee is asking too much,' the New York Times reported.

The governor blasted back at Trump's criticisms, accusing the ex-president of being 'uncharacteristically out of step with the hard-line elements of his party's base'.

Sources close to the former president who have recently talked to him about the governor said Trump has grown increasingly irked by DeSantis in recent months, with Trump beginning to voice his frustrations to those in his inner circle.

Trump is said to be annoyed that DeSantis has refused to rule out running against him if he launches a second White House bid. The Florida governor is extremely popular in Republican circles, and is widely seen as a leader who can push policies popularized by Trump, but without the same level of drama or baggage.

'In the context of the 2024 election, he usually gives DeSantis a pop in the nose in the middle of that type of conversation,' a source who recently spoke to Trump about DeSantis told Axios.

The president also claims 'there's no way' DeSantis would have ever been elected Florida governor without his support."

More/Sauce: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10413077/DeSantis-NOT-bend-knee-Trump-says-backing-ex-president-2024-ask.html

>>15405877

DeSantis-Trump con't

"Ivy League Fat Boy"

"More crossfire came from longtime Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone, who is dumping on DeSantis as an Ivy League 'fat boy.'

Stone, who has known Trump for decades and advised him informally during the 2016 campaign – then got a presidential pardon following a long legal saga amid the Russia probe – tore into DeSantis following the Axios report.

'Trump sometimes President Donald Trump hits it right on the nose. Ron DeSantis Yale Harvard fat boy can't get out of his own way,' he wrote.

'Not smart. Not honest and not going to be president,' Stone wrote on social media.

He called DeSantis, 43: 'An unknown congressman with a bad haircut and an ill-fitting suit until Donald Trump made him governor' – leaving out his latest job title: governor of the state, with a population of more than 20 million, where both Stone and Trump reside.

He also wrote, without explanation: 'I know where he was when he was missing,' in reference to a period when DeSantis was absent from public events, fueling online speculation about his whereabouts. DeSantis' office says he was helping his wife, Casey, with her cancer treatments.

Stone tweeted an expletive about DeSantis and linked to an Axios story about the alleged Trump-DeSantis rift.

In still more kremlinology of the rift, when DeSantis blasted covid lockdowns that began under the Trump administration, he did so on a political podcast of Josh Holmes, a former top aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a bitter Trump rival.

The significance of the venue was not lost on a top Trump advisor, who reflected on it in an NBC news report.

'I like Josh. Josh is great. But he's a wholly owned subsidiary of McConnell World. And there's no way you can tell me that this was all a coincidence,' said the advisor.

'Also, DeSantis and his staff knew what they were doing. How many Florida general election voters are listening to the Ruthless podcast?' said the advisor.

The adviser claimed McConnell sees DeSantis as a 'lesser of two evils' and a way to irritate Trump.

Trump and McConnell have not been on speaking terms since the Jan. 6th riot, when an angry rob ransacked the Capitol where McConnell has worked for decades.

Despite rising tensions between the two, conservatives allege both Trump and DeSantis are vital members of the Republican party.

'DeSantis would be a formidable 2024 candidate in the Trump lane should Trump not run,' Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor, told the Times.

'He's Trump but a little smarter, more disciplined and brusque without being too brusque.'

'They're the two most important leaders in the Republican Party,' argued lobbyist Brian Ballard, who has connections to both men.

He also predicted Trump and DeSantis 'will be personal and political friends for the rest of their careers'.

However, Trump reportedly views the governor as 'ungrateful' and argues his 'willingness to defy him dates back several years'.

Despite his claims, insiders still believe the root of Trump's ire towards DeSantis appears to stem from the fact that he 'won't say he won't run [in 2024]. … The others have stated pretty clearly they won't challenge him,' the source went on to say. "