Trump slams DeSantis ahead of Christie’s expected 2024 presidential announcement.
Ex-President Donald Trump employed a former governor of New Jersey.
Chris Christie’s expected presidential announcement as an opportunity to further his attacks toward Gov. Ron DeSantis.
On Tuesday the day before Christie is anticipated to officially announce his 2024 campaign at a town hall in New Hampshire the Trump team issued a statement on Christie’s impending candidacy. Only mentioning Christie once, the former president primarily took aim at DeSantis, who is Trump’s leading challenger.
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The former president’s campaign alluded to DeSantis losing his “runner-up” status in the statement.
“Ron DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling, and President Trump’s dominance over the Republican primary field has opened a mad rush to seize the mantle for runner-up. Ron DeSantis is not ready for this moment, and Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis’ lunch,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
Since the former president began his campaign in Novembe DeSantis has been exposed to Trump’s criticisms on everything from his name and looks to his position as governor of Florida.
On May 24 DeSantis officially began his campaign ending months of rumors that he will run in the Republican primary. Already touring in key primary and battleground states, DeSantis is touting his legislative successes in Florida and drawing comparisons between himself and Trump and himself and President Joe Biden.
Andrew Romeo, a spokesman for DeSantis,
pointed the Washington Examiner to comments the governor made in Iowa last week when asked for comment on Trump’s statement.
DeSantis told in an interview that he is not really paying much attention to the growing field of Republican primary candidates.
Regardless of who decides to run or not run, for us, it’s really just background noise, DeSantis said. “We believe we have a message that will win. We believe we have the plan to be able to get that done and it’s basically just about execution for us.
Polls show that Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, will face either DeSantis or Trump in November 2024. Christie has nabbed a few 1% standings in several polls already and appears to have a considerable donor base at his disposal, given his last run for president in 2016.
Allies of Christie set up a super PAC, Tell It Like It Is, last week to boost his expected presidential bid.
Christie was close to Trump in the early 2000s and facilitated him when he started the presidential race in 2016. Since then Christie has criticized Trump vehemently. He has hinted that if he jumps into the 2024 arena, he plans to go on the offensive against Trump.
He slammed Trump’s 2024 entry as a “vanity exercise” in early May and has presented himself as the only candidate, or potential candidate, willing to take Trump head-on.
“I’m concerned that the people that are in the race so far are unwilling to take him on directly,” Christie said.
