Ron DeSantis takes veiled shot at Trump by calling criticism 'noise' before Mar-a-Lago announcement

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dismissed Donald Trump’s recent spate of angry attacks against him as ‘noise’ and touted his own strong election record in the 2022 midterms during a press conference on Tuesday.

DeSantis fired back at the former president hours before Trump is expected to announce another campaign for the White House at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday night.

It’s the latest hit in the two GOP giants’ Sunshine State turf war, and a larger fight for control of the Republican Party.

DeSantis has enraged Trump by refusing to rule out a primary challenge against him in 2024. The former president has responded by calling the governor ‘disloyal,’ ‘average’ and ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ amid a flurry of other insults.

Asked about that criticism on Tuesday, DeSantis suggested he was unfazed – but went out of his way to target ‘the corporate media’ more directly than the former president. 

‘When you’re leading, when you’re getting things done, yeah you take incoming fire – that’s just the nature of it,’ DeSantis said.

‘I roll out of bed in the morning, I’ve got corporate media outlets just having a spasm over the fact that I’m getting up in the morning. And it’s constantly attacking, and this is just what’s happened.’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shrugged off criticism and took a veiled shot at Donald Trump during a Tuesday press conference

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shrugged off criticism and took a veiled shot at Donald Trump during a Tuesday press conference

He continued, ‘I think what you learn is, all that’s just noise. And really what matters is – are you leading, are you getting in front of issues, are you delivering results for people and are you standing up for folks? And if you do that, then none of that stuff matters.’ 

But DeSantis added as a final jab, ‘At the end of the day, I would just tell people to check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night.’ 

The Florida governor trounced his Joe Biden-backed challenger, House Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, in a double-digit landslide on November 8.

Republicans swept the state at all levels – a stark comparison to the party’s poor performance nationwide. 

The GOP’s post mortem has been full of finger-pointing as a growing number of Republicans cast blame on Trump for endorsing fringe-right candidates in the primaries.

Trump’s high profile endorsements like Dr. Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Kari Lake in Arizona all lost their respective races.

Trump (pictured arriving at Trump Tower in new York City on November 13) is expected to be announcing a third campaign for president on Tuesday night

Trump (pictured arriving at Trump Tower in new York City on November 13) is expected to be announcing a third campaign for president on Tuesday night

Mastriano and Lake were also endorsed by DeSantis – but his endorsements are not where his appeal lies to GOP election-watchers.

DeSantis has embraced Trump’s ‘America First,’ combative style of politics. It’s seen him and his deputies make headlines for clashes with the Biden administration, LGBTQ activists and the press.

But mainstream Republicans also see him as a more sanitized and calculated version of the former president, able to appeal to Trump’s MAGA base while not turning off moderates in the party and independent voters. 

At 44, he’s also more than three decades younger than Trump.

DeSantis has landed at a close second to Trump in early Republican primary polls, and even overtakes him in some smaller-scale state surveys.

Trump is seen campaigning for DeSantis in Pensacola, Florida, on November 3, 2018 - three days before the vote

Trump is seen campaigning for DeSantis in Pensacola, Florida, on November 3, 2018 – three days before the vote

Trump caught heat from fellow Republicans for mocking DeSantis as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ at a Pennsylvania rally on the Saturday before Election Day.

He pulled back immediately the next day, telling the crowd at a Miami rally to vote DeSantis for governor.

But Trump completely unleashed on DeSantis in a lengthy Truth Social post on November 11 – and appeared to suggest he sent the feds to help the Florida governor win in 2018.

Trump said DeSantis was ‘politically dead’ when he asked for the then-president’s endorsement in 2017.

He also took credit for having ‘fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart.’

‘I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win,’ Trump said through his Save America PAC.

‘I stopped his Election from being stolen.’

source: dailymail.co.uk