Former President Donald Trump posted an update on his Truth Social page Monday that, if true, would certainly change the makeup of the 2024 presidential contest and could even be a sign for 2026 and beyond.
Trump wrote that according to “rumors” he says he’s heard, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is close to dropping out of the race after failing to gain traction and even losing ground to the former president amid a growing number of indictments, which some say has only strengthened Trump’s position.
“Rumors are strong in political circles that Ron DeSanctimonious, whose Presidential run is a shambles, and whose poll numbers have absolutely crashed, putting him 3rd and 4th in some states, will be dropping out of the Presidential race in order to run, in Florida, against Rick Scott for Senate. Now that’s an interesting one, isn’t it?” Trump wrote.
The DeSantis camp hit back at Trump’s post on Tuesday.
“This is fake news. Clearly, Donald Trump and his army of consultants are panicked about @RonDeSantis’ winning debate performance and the strong momentum that has followed,” DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin posted on the X platform.
“They know this is a two-man race, and we will carry this on to a win in this presidential primary. Instead of pushing fake news from New Jersey, the Trump campaign should be focused on getting their candidate on the campaign trail in Iowa and on the debate stage before it’s too late,” Griffin’s post added.
Below is Trump’s Truth social post:
Below is the response from the DeSantis team:
Also, Forbes reported: “DeSantis could not run for the Senate without resigning as governor under Florida’s resign-to-run law which prohibits state, district, county and municipal elected officials from running for another office if the terms run concurrently. The GOP-led Florida legislature amended the law in April to add an exception for elected officials running for president and vice president in what was widely viewed as a favor to DeSantis.”
While he’s still a distant second to Trump, DeSantis did jump a couple of points following Wednesday’s first GOP primary debate, which was moderated by Fox News in Milwaukee and did not include Trump, who chose instead to sit down with Tucker Carlson for an interview.
The New York Post reported:
Former President Donald Trump lost six percentage points of support in a national tracking poll after skipping last week’s first Republican primary debate, though the 77-year-old is still well clear of the rest of the GOP field.
An even 50% of likely Republican primary voters backed Trump in the Emerson College survey out Monday, down from 56% in the poll the outlet released Aug. 19, four days before the showdown at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gained two percentage points from the previous poll and placed second behind Trump with 12% support.
Following the top two were entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 9% (down a point from before the debate), and former Vice President Mike Pence and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at 7% each (up four and five points from before the debate, respectively).
“While Trump saw a slight dip in support, the question from this poll is whether this is a blip for Trump or if the other Republican candidates will be able to rally enough support to be competitive for the caucus and primary season,” said Emerson College Polling executive director Spencer Kimball in a statement to The Post.
“Different candidates have been able to pull varying demographic support from the Trump base,” Kimball added. “For example Mike Pence, who saw an overall four-point bump in voter support, was able to increase his support in the Midwest from 4% to 13% of the vote, while Trump saw his Midwest support drop from 54% to 42% after the debate.
“Nikki Haley’s support increased from about 2% to 9% among voters over 50 while Trump’s support dropped within this age group from about 56% to 49% after the debate,” Kimball added.
Original Article: https://conservativebrief.com/trump-desantis-out-76061/