‘Made-up animosity’: Jeanette Nuñez claims there’s no rift between Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump

Jeanette Núñez says AIDS awareness is crucial to victory over the virus. Image via Colin Hackley.

Are Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis on the outs? Florida’s Lieutenant Governor is saying no.

During a Tuesday appearance on the Fox Business Channel, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez dismissed reports swirling that the former President and “America’s Governor” aren’t in sync anymore.

Asked about the reported rift, which includes accounts of Trump denouncing a “dull” DeSantis, Nuñez termed it a “media obsession” that distracts from real policy issues.

“It’s a media obsession because they want to detract from what is really affecting individuals,” Nuñez told host Stuart Varney. “That made-up animosity is not what’s affecting individuals.”

“So I think it’s just a distraction to take away from the real issues,” Nuñez added.

When reminded of Trump’s desire to run for President again, and DeSantis’ own prominence in those 2024 discussions, Nuñez (who was once a Never Trumper herself) was deliberate in her answer.

“Well, I would say obviously the President will make the decisions that he wants to make. We’re focused on 2022 exclusively, running for re-election,” Nuñez said.

Nuñez has been taking more of an active campaign surrogate role of late, including a recent cable news hit condemning Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried for comparing the Governor to Adolf Hitler. And just as the Governor’s messaging vis a vis Trump has been careful of late, so was Nuñez’s Tuesday on Fox Business.

Last week, when asked about a potential confrontation with Trump, DeSantis parsed his language in response.

The Governor addressed the 2024 question in an interview with the right-of-center Ruthless Podcast. He also faced a question about his dynamic with Trump, which is increasingly a matter of speculation. But on both matters, he danced around giving direct answers.

After promoting his gubernatorial re-election website, DeSantis pivoted to facing, yet again, the question of why a subset of Republicans believe he should be their standard bearer. DeSantis repeated his explanation that people respond to the fact he takes action.

“I just do my job. But I think what people see, quite frankly, Republicans, they want to see people actually lead and get things done and fight back. And that’s what we’ve done. We’ve had to do it tooth and nail. We don’t back down from anybody. And we do things. And so, I don’t just wait for things to happen,” DeSantis said. “We’re out front.”

DeSantis then deflected a question about his relationship with former President Trump.

“I think this is what the media does, and you cannot fall for the bait. You know what they’re trying to do. Don’t take the bait, and just kind of keep on keeping on. We need everybody united for a big red wave in 2022,” DeSantis said.

Trump has predicted that if he runs for President again, DeSantis will not run. But DeSantis has not promised to bow out of the race, apparently irking Trump. Instead, DeSantis has tended to deflect the question.

“It’s way down the road. It’s not anything that I’m planning for,” DeSantis said during a Fox News Channel appearance last fall.

Of late, Trump and DeSantis have been squabbling about pandemic politics. The former President needled “gutless” politicians about not disclosing whether or not they’ve gotten a booster for COVID-19. The Governor has not said definitively whether he has gotten the booster shot or not.

In turn, DeSantis suggested the Trump administration paved the way for lockdown politicians.

“What could you do, you know, earlier? I think like, when COVID was first coming, we were actually engaged in it. I was telling Trump, ‘Stop the flights from China,’ because we didn’t know what we were dealing with. But, you know, I never thought in February, early March, that it would lead to locking down the country. I just didn’t. I didn’t think that was on the radar. I was dealing with, I mean I had Pence and the CDC director down in Port Everglades talking about cruise ships the second week of March. And no one was talking about shutting down the country. And I think if knowing now what I knew then, if that was a threat earlier, I would’ve been much louder about, you know, trying to say, ‘This is not,’” DeSantis said on the Ruthless podcast.