In South Carolina, Donald Trump avoids a direct assault on Ron DeSantis

Former President Donald Trump stopped in South Carolina Saturday for his second speech of the day.

Trump, who addressed New Hampshire Republicans earlier in the afternoon, offered a similar message in Columbia at the State House.

As was the case in his speech earlier in the day, the former President asserted that he was the front runner, selectively citing polling to back that claim. And as in New Hampshire, he made the choice to keep Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ name out of his mouth on stage, instead merely asserting he was the candidate to beat.

“We had polls today come out, I think the best polls I ever had actually,” Trump said to cheers.

He would return to the polls before the end of his remarks.

“The big thing is the polls. We’re leading everybody by so much. Remember in 2016 I used to go around bragging about the polls? Only if they were good. If they were bad, I wouldn’t actually talk about it, but they were mostly good.”

“I would go around and I would say ‘you know, this poll just came out. McLaughlin just came out and I’m leading by 20, and I’m leading by ten,” Trump added. “It drove the fake news media crazy.”

However, a recent “bad” Palmetto State poll went unmentioned by the former President. The survey showed Trump struggling against DeSantis in a hypothetical Primary faceoff, with even Trump voters willing to embrace the Florida Governor.

The survey from the South Carolina Policy Council, conducted by Spry Strategies, shows Trump mustering just 33% support against DeSantis in a head-to-head, with DeSantis garnering 52% support.

The poll stratified responses based on how favorably respondents rated Trump, leading to some interesting divisions.

Respondents who regarded Trump unfavorably, or had no opinion on the former President, gave DeSantis more than 70% of their support. Yet even those who had a “somewhat favorable” read on Trump picked DeSantis, 63% to 18%.

All told, of Republican Primary voters that viewed Trump very favorably said the GOP should nominate someone else. Even among those who had a “very favorable” impression of Trump, 30% chose DeSantis, with the former President getting just 61% among those respondents who liked him the most.

Early polling is just a snapshot in time, and Trump, DeSantis, and myriad other candidates will have a chance to impress base voters soon, interfacing with South Carolina voters in less than two months at the same event, reports the Post & Courier.

They will be at the Palmetto Family Council‘s “Vision ’24 National Conservative Forum” March 18 at the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston.

And while Trump didn’t mention DeSantis on the mike Saturday, he previewed that potential showdown, with a broadside on the flight to Columbia against the Governor when it came to COVID-19, accusing him of trying to “rewrite history,” per the Wall Street Journal. That may be one of the lines of attack as the Primaries approach.