Michigan poll says ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ is a losing insult for Donald Trump
Social media favors the Florida Governor over the Mar-a-Lago retiree.

DeSantis Trump
By a 9-to-1 margin, Michigan Republicans say the nickname hurts Trump more than DeSantis.

Donald Trump’s favorite nickname for Ron DeSantis is falling flat.

That’s one takeaway from an Echelon Insights survey of 400 Michigan Republicans conducted from Feb. 13-16, which shows that “Ron DeSanctimonious” is a loser, and that Trump’s use of the polysyllabic putdown is hurting the former President more than the Florida Governor.

Just 30% of respondents were even aware Trump coined the name for DeSantis, especially interesting given that Trump first launched the scathing sobriquet before Election Day 2022.

Meanwhile, respondents who had heard the nickname were nine times more likely to think less of Trump than DeSantis. Just 5% of respondents thought less of the Governor when they heard it, while 45% of those polled said it reflected poorly on the former President.

The corrosive effect of the nickname even reflects in the Trump base, according to a memo: “While those preferring Trump in a 2024 primary were more apt to say that this did not change their view (70%), twice as many respondents said that it reflected more poorly on Trump (21%) than DeSantis (9%).”

Trump trotted out “Ron DeSanctimonious” late last year, and the former President still seems to like that nickname, though it is much lengthier than classic put-downs like “Little Marco,” “Lyin’ Ted,” “Low Energy Jeb,” and “Sleepy Joe,” punchy pejoratives for Marco RubioTed CruzJeb Bush and President Joe Biden, respectively.

Trump recycled “Ron DeSanctimonious” earlier this month, when trying to heat up a controversy with a re-truth on a post with text on an image stating, “Here is Ron DeSanctimonious grooming high school girls with alcohol as a teacher.”

The picture purportedly dates back to the Governor’s short-lived career as a teacher at a college preparatory academy, where he reportedly fraternized with students.

Trump has also workshopped other insults, including at the beginning of February, when he took to his Truth Social account to whack DeSantis as a “globalist” and a “RINO” (Republican in name only). He has denied test driving the controversial “Meatball Ron” slam, however.

The Michigan Republican repudiation of “Ron DeSanctimonious” isn’t the only good news for DeSantis in the survey. He’s ahead of Trump, 47% to 42%, in a still-hypothetical 2024 Presidential Preference Primary, as long as DeSantis and Trump are the only two candidates in the field.

While that result is inside the 6-percentage-point margin of error, the memo points out various favorable breakdowns for DeSantis. He leads 54% to 32% with voters over the age of 65, 51% to 41% with men, and by a more marginal 48% to 43% with voters in the Detroit metropolitan area.

Trump leads DeSantis with female voters, albeit barely, drawing 43% support against 40% for DeSantis.

Echelon contends the Michigan result is “consistent with state polls throughout the country that show DeSantis leading or competitive with Trump.” While that is true in binary races, other single-state polling shows a more complicated and challenging landscape for the Florida Governor in an expanded field.

In recent polls from Kansas and South Carolina, where in-state powerhouses Mike PompeoNikki Haley, and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott are either running or exploring the possibility, Trump leads DeSantis and other candidates by more than 10 points in a crowded field. With more candidates in the mix every week, the likelihood of DeSantis getting Trump alone in Primaries shrinks with every news cycle.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


8 comments

  • Walter Cronkite

    February 22, 2023 at 1:56 pm

    The leftist lame stream fake news media desperatly tries to make Donald Trump do what they want Donald Trump to do with this never ending fake poll conga line.
    Trump is smarter than 109.988% of anybody involved with the leftist lame stream fake news media. All of the voters on the planet both left and right know this is nothing but a fake news lame stream media side show.
    As THE former preimier media giant of the planet I know a little about what is happening down there. I’ve snuck into one of the Heavenly restrooms up here and am secertly sending this communication by a smuggled in cell phone. Waiting for my old friend Jimmy Carter.
    Thank you, Walter

    • Elliott Offen

      February 23, 2023 at 7:51 am

      Trump is politically impotent and radioactive sewage. Not coming back. If he runs again, he will lose again. Seek help for intellectual disability. Hell, seek euthanasia!

    • TJC

      February 24, 2023 at 12:38 pm

      Walter Cronkite helped to bring down Richard Nixon by reporting the truth about the America’s failure in Viet Nam. Cronkite was an intelligent man, a mainstream journalist, and he would — were he alive today — report the truth about the failure of Donald Trump to uphold his oath of office and by that and other acts betray the Constitution of The United States.

  • Josh Green

    February 23, 2023 at 1:31 pm

    It’s nice to know that this is the type of thing that the GOP wastes their time thinking about.

  • Paul Smenis

    February 23, 2023 at 4:14 pm

    Yeah…shoulda stuck with Meatball.

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  • M. Mouse

    February 24, 2023 at 12:32 pm

    The key to this poll is that the respondents are all Michigan Republicans. Of course they don’t like Trump’s use of a polysyllabic word. They don’t understand polysyllabic words. They don’t understand polysyllabic, for example. Trump’s got to dumb down his insults if he wants his people to understand the meaning of the insults.

Comments are closed.


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