In rally rant, Donald Trump does Texas two-step on Ron DeSantis
Trump was in Waco Saturday.

Trump 2
Trump attacked the Governor on COVID-19, crime, and a lack of loyalty, among other issues.

Donald Trump took his arguments against one-time ally Ron DeSantis on the road Saturday.

The former President entertained a crowd in Waco, Texas, about myriad issues with the man he has called “Ron DeSanctimonious” for months.

Within five minutes, Trump touched on various themes, making the case that the Florida Governor, a runner-up to Trump in most polling, doesn’t measure up — a well-timed tack given DeSantis’ expected foray into the 2024 presidential race.

“They keep saying; I think DeSantis can do OK with farmers. I don’t think so. Based on polls, he’s not doing OK with anything,” Trump said before rehashing statements about DeSantis’ former positions on senior citizen entitlements.

“It’s never good to try and destroy Social Security. It’s never good to raise the minimum age to a very high level which was not good, and to go against Medicare and try and obliterate it. These are a few of the good facts. It’s also not good when you look statistically at how he did on COVID. Not well at all; he’s in a very bad position. Or you look at how he does on crime,” Trump contended, alluding to issues in some of Florida’s major cities.

He wasn’t done by a long shot, returning to COVID-19 in Florida.

“You didn’t have to shut down. But in the case of Florida, they, unfortunately, did shut it down; they shut down the beaches, they shut down everything. So now that people are finding out about what happened, they’re saying, man, he’s dropping like a rock, and I wonder why,” Trump snarked before again recounting the tale of the brokered 2018 endorsement.

“I’m a loyalist. And when a man comes to me (with) tears in his eyes, He’s at almost nothing in the polls, and he’s fighting somebody that’s at 42, and he’s got almost $30 million in the bank. He’s at almost nothing. He’s got no cash. And I said, ‘I can’t give you an endorsement. There’s no way you can win. You’re dead.'”

Despite Trump’s misgivings, he granted the endorsement, as DeSantis fought for him “just a little bit on the impeachment hoax.”

“I didn’t know him very well, but I saw him, so he came, and he really wanted (the endorsement). I said, ‘you can’t win.'”

Trump then quoted DeSantis: “If you endorse me, I’ll win. Please. Please, sir, endorse me.”

“And I said, ‘all right, let’s give it a shot’ because honestly, the Secretary of Agriculture, Adam Putnam, good man, but I never met him. I didn’t know him. So, I don’t feel guilty about it. You know, if you don’t know somebody, I wish I knew him. Actually, you want to know the truth. (If I had known him), I wouldn’t have done this.”

As Trump said, the endorsement turned the moribund DeSantis campaign into a “rocket ship.”

“Within one day, the race was over,” Trump said before retaking credit for DeSantis’ narrow win against Andrew Gillum, “a man that was the hottest in all politics.”

“So, we got him the nomination; we then got him the election. (DeSantis) said, ‘I don’t think I could make it because the other guy was really popular,’ believe it or not, he was going to be the next President of the United States,” Trump alleged.

The former President moved on to another recurrent theme: Florida being better off under previous Governors.

“Remember one thing, Florida has been tremendously successful for many years — long before this guy became Governor. Florida was tremendously successful under Rick Scott. Whether you like him or not, Charlie Crist was very successful. He was a Republican at the time, but Florida has been successful for decades, in fact, probably as or more successful than it is now. But when a man, you know, you get him elected, and there’s no quid pro quo, get rid of that word.”

“He gets the nomination because of you. He wins the election because of you. Two years later, the fake news is up there saying (to DeSantis), ‘Will you run against the President? Will you run?’ and he says, ‘I have no comment.'”

“I say that’s not supposed to happen,” Trump said.

Again, the former President also claimed that DeSantis is “a disciple of Paul Ryan.”

“That’s why he wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Trump contended.

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

  • Cato

    March 25, 2023 at 10:41 pm

    He also took back a Florida constitutional amendment that granted a tax exemption to totally disable first responders. He did this three times despite support from his own party leadership in the Senate and most of the 67 county property appraises. Now he’s trying to use first responders in his campaign. He can’t be trusted. Check out first responders tax exemption Fox 13 Tampa broadcast March 3rd.

  • William Martin

    March 25, 2023 at 11:10 pm

    DJT’s rude, crude mouthings may have helped in 2016 but with all the bitchery going on now not so sure. That might go over — for now in Texas–but don’t eat all your cracker jax yet…

  • Lalaa

    March 25, 2023 at 11:50 pm

    You all believed the COVID lies, but somehow you can’t believe that the 2020 election was stolen? Despite video cameras showing people scanning the same ballot over and over and over again for Biden to the tune of just the amount needed to win? Okie Dokie. Smoke up and keep those blinders on. If you are a serious Independent or Libertarian you would see this as a great injustice and in KARMA’s sense, IT MUST BE RECTIFIED because what was done in 2020 was WRONG WRONG WRONG on many many levels. It was a full blown assault on DEMOCRACY which is why so many people who saw it were angry and went to DC to protest. Nobody just gets that angry unless something was done to make them that angry and we saw it and for some spiritual reason some people didn’t see it (see bible verses about people being blinded to reality and truth..i.e.. “In their case the god of this world (the devil) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4. That’s right folks, YOU ARE BLIND to the truth if you can’t see what happened in 2020, you are UNSAVED and held captive to do the evil one’s will. YOU can’t see the TRUTH. You are a sheep led to the slaughter, just like we all were before God changed us and opened our eyes. SEEK GOD now so you can see clearly. Or enjoy your walk off the cliff into hell. TRUTH. Joe Biden is a demonic freak. HIs wife is a sold out weirdo creep. Kamala< Obamas, Clintons…Bushes….all sold out to the evil one. The Clinton's especially along with Obamas and Bushes. Very evil trio of families. But God sees them. They will answer to GOD. And in case you were wondering WHY we have a new surge of transexuals…it's prepping the way for the antichrist who does not like women or men. And will most likely come from Turkey…not from USA.

    • Please get help

      March 26, 2023 at 6:00 am

      Unless this is parody, you really need to seek help. Maybe ask your doctor to adjust your medications because something is off there.

  • woken

    March 26, 2023 at 8:59 am

    I can hardly wait for Thanksgiving although every day is likely Christmas watching the Tramp-Ronduh Santos slow motion car wreck. Hopefully one of them will give out trans turkeys to help win the vote. Oops, Ronduh isn’t running yet. Oh, well, he can still give the gift of mandating that in English classes that girls only be taught about no-period punctuation and therefore be forced into eternal run on sentences unless questioning or exclaiming!? Mind you, high school girls would be well justified to question why they are going to be forced to have babies against their will should they get raped and to exclaim “our body our choice!”

  • It’s Complicated

    March 26, 2023 at 12:57 pm

    Must be tough waking up everyday having to feed an ego that size.

  • Earl Pitts American

    March 26, 2023 at 2:18 pm

    Good afternoon America,
    I want to thank A. G. for doing his part to keep the 23% of the nation who still plan on voting Democrat for POTUS think their party has a chance.
    Even though 23% of the USA seems insignificant its still a buttload of crazies if they all decide to riot upon learning they have less than a zero chance of putting a Democrat in the White House for the next 20 years.
    You are a fine American A. J. a true Patriot my man. Let me know if you want to be Donald’s official White House spokesman. With your great service to our Nation in keeping leftist crazies from rioting because they think they still have a chance will come great Rewards!!!
    Keep up the great work A. G.
    Thank you America,
    Earl Pitts American

    • Flatbed 500

      March 26, 2023 at 5:57 pm

      Naw. Earl Pitts was funny.

Comments are closed.


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