After months of taking jabs at Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finally confirmed he will be running for president in 2024.
On Wednesday, May 24, the 44-year-old chatted with Twitter CEO Elon Musk during a Twitter Spaces event and also released a video explaining his decision to run for the Republican bid.
"Our border is a disaster. Crime infests our cities. The federal government makes it harder for families to make ends meet. And the president flounders," DeSantis claimed in the video shared with a news outlet on Wednesday.
"Success is attainable. And freedom is worth fighting for," he continued. "Righting the ship requires restoring sanity to our society, normalcy to our communities, and integrity to our institutions. Truth must be our foundation — and common sense can no longer be an uncommon virtue. In Florida, we proved it can be done."
As OK! previously reported, DeSantis' strategy is a bit unusual — for a specific reason. "Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis," a Trump adviser told Fox News. "This way he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him any questions."
DeSantis has been making headlines for feuding with Trump, 76, despite never throwing his hat in the ring for president.
Once word got out, Trump immediately started firing off statements about the ordeal.
"Look, Rob DeSanctimonious came to me asking for help. He was losing badly, by 31 points, to popular Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. He was getting ready to drop out of the race – Ran a terrible campaign! Ron told me he had one last chance, my Support & Endorsement, which Putnam, and everyone else, wanted also. I gave it to Ron, and the race was over. In one day, he went from losing badly, to winning by a lot. With 3 LARGE TRUMP RALLIES, he WON THE GENERAL ELECTION in an upset. DISLOYAL!!!" he began.
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"Ron DeSanctus can’t win the General Election (or get the Nomination) because he VOTED TO OBLITERATE SOCIAL SECURITY, EVEN WANTING TO RAISE THE MINIMUM AGE TO 70 (or more!), VOTED TO BADLY WOUND MEDICARE, AND FOUGHT HARD AND VOTED FOR A 23% 'TAX ON EVERYTHING' SALES TAX. He was, and is, a disciple of horrible RINO Paul Ryan, and others too many to mention. Also, he desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet. A disloyal person!" he continued.
Trump has continued to state that his former pal went behind his back — something he can never get over.
"Yeah, but they're really fading fast. I mean, it's fading very, very quickly," he replied before taking aim at DeSantis. "You have a guy from Florida, Ron DeSantis, who I got in with my endorsement. He was at three points. He was nothing, he was not going to win. He was going to lose and I endorsed him."
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"He was dead politically. I endorsed him and saved him ... When I endorsed him he went like a rocket ship," he stated. "I should call him rocket man, but now he's rocket man that's crashing. When you help somebody, I believe in loyalty. You just don't do what he did."
Fox News obtained DeSantis' campaign video announcing his bid.
