Republican Presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said this week that former President Trump’s taunts about his last name were “petty” and “juvenile.”
Speaking in the Pulse of New Hampshire, DeSantis told host Jack Heath that he thinks Trump’s nickname is “so petty. I think it’s so juvenile,” and not what voters wanted.
Trump recently mocked DeSantis for how the Governor pronounced his last name while calling the Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious,” a nickname the former President often uses and on occasion shortens to DeSanctus.
DeSantis told Heath that Trump’s behavior is one of the reasons the former President lost the 2020 presidential election.
The Florida Governor shared his belief that Trump’s “conduct, which he’s been doing for years now,” was one of the reasons Trump is not in the White House right now because he had “alienated too many voters” by focusing on things that really don’t matter.
DeSantis added, “So I don’t get into the gutter on any of that.”
The Florida governor pointed out that he and the former President have “substantive differences” but still believes Trump “did a lot of great things.”
DeSantis described giving Trump “credit” for the former President’s accomplishments but noted that Trump was attacking him on policy, which he declared, “I’m the one that’s in the right on this.”
DeSantis also cited Trump’s recent remarks that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did a better job than DeSantis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Florida boomed as one of the nation’ foremost freedom zones,” DeSantis added, noting that he even had to fight the Trump administration to keep the state open.
