(NewsNation) — The war of words among top contenders for the 2024 GOP nomination is escalating as campaigns resort to below-the-belt comments.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign threw jabs at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ manhood, even questioning it.
Ahead of DeSantis’ event in Nevada, which traditionally features a Basque Fry where lamb testicles are served, a Trump official quipped “No surprised Ron DeSantis is looking for a set of balls,” NBC reported.
The jabs were returned with comments from a pro-DeSantis super PAC that could be considered offensive to certain groups.
“The Trump teams’s obsession with men’s genitalia is more perverted than a woke grooming book,” Erin Perrine of the super PAC Never Back Down said in a statement.
The Trump team has not yet responded to the increasingly vulgar comments.
Commenting on the situation, UN Ambassador and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley tweeted: “Boys will be boys.”
Despite these obscene comments, the polls remain mostly the same with Trump actually seeing a slight jump in numbers following his federal indictment last week.
In April, Trump was polling at just over 50% nationally after his first indictment. He is now polling between 51% to 53%.
DeSantis is positioned firmly in the second behind the former president.
Though Trump and DeSantis are the apparent front-runners in the GOP race, an increasingly competitive field is building as Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez becomes the 13th candidate to declare a 2024 bid for the White House.
“I think what the country is looking for is something fresh, something new, something different, something unifying, and someone with a track record of success and a positive vision for the future. I think positivity always wins over negativity. And I think the problem is that voters haven’t been given a choice. And now for the first time, they have a choice,” Suarez told NewsNation on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Suarez is now the third Floridian making a presidential bid, joining Trump and DeSantis.
With DeSantis being one of the GOP frontrunners, eyes are on Florida and its legislation. Just this week, DeSantis vetoed millions of dollars in funding for Black history and gun violence programs and cut millions more in funds in a district where a key Republican senator endorsed Trump, all as part of a state budget deal.
In another move this week, DeSantis appears to be trying to save car dealerships by barring legacy automakers from offering online sales options if the company already sells vehicles in the state through a dealership.