Miami Beach, FL (NewsNation) — The relationship between former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis remains fractured following a contentious 2024 presidential battle.
At a press conference Wednesday morning, DeSantis sounded unlikely to campaign for Trump. When asked by NewsNation’s Libbey Dean if he would join the presumptive GOP nominee on the trail, DeSantis was hesitant to commit.
The governor’s reasoning: Florida isn’t “competitive” enough for him to stump for Trump.
“This is not going to be a state that’s competitive in November,” DeSantis said at a news conference. “So, I don’t anticipate there being much campaign here for the top of the ticket.” DeSantis added that would like to “help nationally,” but questioned exactly how he would do that.
Florida’s chief executive, once a Trump ally, has had a rocky relationship with the former president since telegraphing a potential 2024 presidential bid before the 2022 midterms.
A core message during DeSantis’ run was the claim that Trump had too much baggage to win a general election. Despite that, the governor ended up endorsing the former President in late January. It came during a taped concession speech that DeSantis’ campaign published shortly after a distant second place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
Even with that endorsement, Trump has continued to criticize DeSantis. Just this past weekend, Trump said in Dayton, Ohio, he “hit” DeSantis as hard as he hit ISIS.
“We hit him low,” the former president said. “We hit him in the middle. We hit him from on top and we even came under the ground. We hit this guy so hard by the time he announced nobody knew what the hell happened.”
In response to DeSantis’ comment, the Trump campaign suggested his help wasn’t needed.
“Ron really shouldn’t flatter himself by assuming we’d want him on the campaign trail,” said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign. “We’re actually trying to win.”