Former President Donald Trump anticipates Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) campaign will soon run out of funds and the Florida governor will exit the presidential race.
Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to share his prediction, likening his foe to “a wounded bird falling from the sky.”
“He has proven to be a terrible and inept candidate who even fought Social Security and MediCare,” Trump wrote before calling DeSantis’s struggles a “beautiful thing to watch.”
“He will SOON be out of money and dropping out of the race for President,” Trump said. “After having single handidly gotten him elected Governor, with no thanks or glory, it has been a beautiful thing to watch. Good luck Ron!”
Trump’s forecast comes on the heels of a New York Times report from last week indicating the DeSantis campaign is severely strapped for cash, having $13.5 million in cash on hand heading into October, with only $5 million of that being eligible to be used in the Republican primary. In comparison, Trump’s team told the Times it had $36 million in funds eligible for the primary to start the month.
The 45th president has been highly critical of DeSantis throughout the primary, with loyalty serving as an underlying theme. In March, at a Waco, Texas rally, Trump stated an emotional DeSantis came to him while his prospects were low in the 2018 GOP primary for Florida governor and asked for an endorsement.
File/Ron DeSantis, governor-elect of Florida, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“So what happened is, I said, ‘Let’s give it a shot, Ron.’ And I endorsed him, and he became like a rocket ship,” Trump told a crowd of thousands. “Within one day, the race was over; he got the nomination.”
Trump later added at the rally:
But when you’re getting a guy, so he gets the nomination because of you; he wins the election because of you, two years later, the fake news is up there saying, ‘Will you run against the president? Will you run?’ And he says, ‘I have no comment.’ I say, ‘That’s not supposed to happen’… So I’m not a big fan.
DeSantis was the most competitive rival to Trump in the early Spring, months ahead of his campaign launch this Summer. On March 31, DeSantis averaged 30 percent support in the Real Clear Politics (RCP) polling average, placing him 16 points behind Trump at 46 percent.
The gap between the two has widened substantially since then, with Trump averaging 57 percent on RCP as of October 6 and DeSantis averaging 13 percent. This marks a 28 percent swing in Trump’s favor.
DeSantis now finds himself closer to the rest of the pack, with former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) averaging seven percent and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy with a median of just under six percent on RCP.
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