Gov. Ron DeSantis deflected a question Wednesday on whether there was a civil war brewing in the GOP between himself and his former mentor, Donald Trump, a day after the former president jumped into the 2024 presidential race.
“Look, I think we just finished this election, OK?” DeSantis said at an event in Southwest Florida on Wednesday. “People just need to chill out a little bit on some of this stuff. I mean, seriously, we just ran an election.”
DeSantis echoed his comments from Tuesday, in which he didn’t criticize Trump by name but focused on the GOP’s “substandard performance” nationally in last week’s election. He called Florida’s Republican dominance, which included gaining supermajorities in both chambers, “the biggest bright spot, [while] it was not so bright in many other parts of the country.”
“So I think at the end of the day, it’s been a long election,” DeSantis said. “… The good thing about winning a big victory [is] we’ve got supermajorities in the Legislature now, and I think we have an opportunity to continue great momentum.”
DeSantis, whose 20-point reelection victory last week was a bright spot for the Republican Party, has seemingly become the favorite of conservative media for 2024.
Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post limited its coverage of Trump’s presidential announcement to a small banner at the bottom of the front page reading, “Florida Man Makes Announcement.”
The brief story on the speech called Trump “a Florida retiree” and “avid golfer” and described Mar-a-Lago as his “resort and classified-documents library.” The story added that Trump would be 78 in 2024. “His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup.”
The main image on the Fox News website the day after Trump entered the race was also a photo of a smiling DeSantis.
But coverage of Trump’s speech, criticized as “low energy” by critics from the left and right alike, still garnered praise from Fox News’ primetime lineup. The Post slammed Trump in 2015 and 2016 before changing course and backing him for years.
Trump did not mention DeSantis or any other potential Republican rival for the nomination in his hour-plus speech, despite releasing a lengthy statement last week attacking DeSantis as an “average Republican governor” who came to him “desperate” in 2018 for an endorsement.
Only one GOP Congress member, outgoing U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., attended Trump’s announcement. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a staunch Trump ally, said he couldn’t come because of the weather.
The top outside group that supports Senate Republicans is spending $14.2 million to run ads in Georgia's Senate runoff election supporting GOP challenger Herschel Walker
As Republicans remain embroiled in party infighting following the midterm elections, Senate Democrats are looking to pass key legislation after holding to their majority.
In an unsurprising move, Donald Trump announced his third run for president on Tuesday night at Mar-a-Lago. While the former president still has his supporters, there are plenty of Republicans who are now criticizing his decision to campaign because they believe he’s hurting the GOP after his midterm elections disaster. Donald Trump’s former chief of […]
GOP lawmakers were notably absent from Trump's campaign announcement at Mar-a-Lago. Only one, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, was spotted by Insider.
Stephen Schwarzman became the second GOP megadonor to bail on the former president in the last two weeks. A few hours later, Ronald Lauder became the third
Donald Trump, Fox News, and others are in disbelief that the election denier lost the Arizona gubernatorial race, alleging fraud and foul play
Trump's speech lasted more than an hour.
Trump faces multiple civil and criminal investigations. His candidacy may lead to them being handled differently.
Fox NewsThe morning after his network called the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs, Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke seemed to cast doubt on the results while reassuring viewers that MAGA candidate Kari Lake still had an outside shot to win.At the same time, he repeatedly mocked the presumptive next governor of Arizona, throwing barbs at Hobbs while delivering a news report on Tuesday morning.Nearly a week after the polls closed, Hobbs was finally declared the winner on Monday e
Eric Trump Jr., his wife Lara Trump, Jared Kushner, and Barron Trump were seen entering the room where Donald Trump made his announcement.
Conway said the American people have likely "seen enough" of Trump, as evidenced by the 2022 midterm results.
Some Republicans are concerned that the former president will damage the party's prospects in 2024 as he is too divisive.
Donald Trump reveals his newest 'glorious' product for 2024, and even his daughter skips the launch.
As Donald Trump announced Tuesday he is running again for the White House, two groups are already working behind the scenes to mount a national push to get elections officials to stop him from being on the ballot because of Jan. 6 — even as similar such efforts have failed against other Republicans. Free Speech For People and Mi Familia Vota are launching a campaign via TrumpIsDisqualified.org to urge secretaries of state and other chief elections officials to bar the former president from running for office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, known as the disqualification clause. Enacted after the Civil War, the clause blocks any person from holding federal office who has taken an oath to protect the Constitution — including a member of Congress — but who has "engaged in insurrection" against the U.S. or "given aid or comfort" to its "enemies."
A video shared by an ABC News reporter showed a crowd of people forming near the doors of a Mar-a-Lago room as Trump spoke.
Markets have so far had a muted response to Trump’s widely anticipated announcement.
Fox Business NetworkThe Fox News empire’s dramatic dumping of Donald Trump appears to be in full swing, and that has resulted in some potentially awkward on-air interactions. Case in point: when Lara Trump, a Fox News paid contributor, appeared Wednesday morning on Stuart Varney’s FBN show and was told point-blank that her father-in-law doesn’t have the goods anymore.“I have to say that there wasn’t a great reception to the speech last night. Not a single elected Republican official was there,”
The former president said he doesn’t know if the American public is ready to impose the death penalty for dealing drugs. He’s probably right.
The servile Republican praised the former president's "tone" and drew ridicule on Twitter.
In light of Kari Lake's loss, an Arizona state senator appears to have had an epiphany about Republicans' "echo chamber."