It Begins: Trump Kicks Off DeSantis Launch Day With First of Many Posts Attacking Fellow Florida Man

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File

Former President Donald  Trump is reacting to news of Ron DeSantis’s imminent presidential bid as you might expect: with relentless attacks on social media.

News broke yesterday that the Florida governor would officially announce his long-expected bid for the White House in a Twitter Spaces interview ostensibly brokered by Elon Musk. This has caused some good-natured laughter by the less tech-savvy set of your typical pro-Republican media outlets.

And so Trump has started this day — the first day of the rest of his and DeSantis’s political lives — by doing what he does best: attacking and insulting his former political ally turned rival on social media.

He opened with the old chestnut of taking credit for DeSantis’s successful run for governor, a message he’s sent repeatedly. But the former president is not afraid to hit the classics:

Look, Rob DeSanctimonious came to me asking for help. He was losing badly, by 31 points, to popular Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. He was getting ready to drop out of the race – Ran a terrible campaign! Ron told me he had one last chance, my Support & Endorsement, which Putnam, and everyone else, wanted also. I gave it to Ron, and the race was over. In one day, he went from losing badly, to winning by a lot. With 3 LARGE TRUMP RALLIES, he WON THE GENERAL ELECTION in an upset. DISLOYAL!!!

Trump then dismissed DeSantis’s chances for winning the general election (though that’s often cited as the reason why Trump should not win the Republican nomination) before hitting DeSantis’s personality:

Ron DeSanctus can’t win the General Election (or get the Nomination) because he VOTED TO OBLITERATE SOCIAL SECURITY, EVEN WANTING TO RAISE THE MINIMUM AGE TO 70 (or more!), VOTED TO BADLY WOUND MEDICARE, AND FOUGHT HARD AND VOTED FOR A 23% “TAX ON EVERYTHING” SALES TAX. He was, and is, a disciple of horrible RINO Paul Ryan, and others too many to mention. Also, he desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet. A disloyal person!

(“Trump Admits He Is Unaware of a Personality Transplant!” was a headline we briefly considered.)

Trump then returned to his ALL CAPS format because he thought that was a compelling way to get his message out and not at all unhinged:

I BUILT THE GREATEST ECONOMY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, NO INFLATION, ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, AND SOON DOMINANCE, THE STRONGEST BORDER EVER, RECORD BEST EMPLOYMENT NUMBERS, BIGGEST TAX & REGULATION CUTS, REBUILT OUR MILITARY, NO WARS WITH RUSSIA/UKRAINE OR CHINA/TAIWAN (OR ANYWHERE!), AND THE USA WAS RESPECTED ALL OVER THE WORLD! WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY?

Finally, without apparent reason, Trump dropped the non sequitur “ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” because why not?

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