Trump says DeSantis ‘could have been more gracious’

Former President Trump on Tuesday complained that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was not gracious enough to him for backing his first gubernatorial bid, the latest sign of a growing rift between the two men ahead of a possible 2024 presidential primary showdown.

“Ron is a person, I’ve always had a decent relationship with him, but when I endorsed him, he was gone,” Trump told NewsNation in an interview from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. (NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which purchased The Hill in 2021.)

“He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race, and as soon as I endorsed him, within moments the race was over,” Trump continued. “I got him the nomination. He didn’t get it, I got it. Because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it.”

“I thought that he could have been more gracious, but that’s up to him,” Trump added, noting he held rallies for DeSantis in the closing days of the 2018 campaign.

Trump has in recent days more freely gone after the incumbent Florida governor, who is widely seen as perhaps Trump’s most viable rival for the GOP presidential nomination.

At a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, Trump mocked DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious” as he read off polling numbers Trump had picked out that showed himself leading other potential primary challengers.

Trump also held a rally in Miami on Sunday but did not invite DeSantis, who is on the ballot for reelection in Florida. But at that rally, Trump urged supporters to vote for the governor, and Trump himself cast his ballot for DeSantis on Tuesday.

Trump on Monday appeared to set up the launch of a third White House bid, telling supporters in Ohio that he would make a “very big announcement” at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Nov. 15.