Donald Trump has claimed that he stopped Ron DeSantis from losing his 2018 gubernatorial election by sending in federal agents to prevent the race being rigged by voter fraud.
The latest unsubstantiated claims of election fraud pushed by the former president arrive as Trump continues to attack DeSantis in the wake of the GOP's poor midterm performance, with many conservative figures now believing the Florida governor should lead the party heading into 2024.
In a lengthy statement posted on his social media website Truth Social on Thursday evening, Trump described "Ron DeSanctimonious"—his new nickname for the governor—as an "average" Republican who was "politically dead" when he came to him for help to beat Florida's agriculture commissioner, Adam Putnam, in the GOP primary for governor.
Trump then took credit for DeSantis beating Democrat Andrew Gillum in the 2018 gubernatorial election by holding "two massive rallies" in support of DeSantis and fixing his campaign, which the former president said "had completely fallen apart."
Trump also claims, without evidence, that he helped DeSantis' 2018 election from being "stolen" by sending the FBI and prosecutors to investigate apparent voter fraud.
"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. I stopped his Election from being stolen," Trump said.
DeSantis beat Gillum in 2018 by 4,076,186 votes to 4,043,723, a margin of just 0.4 percent of the total ballots cast.
Elsewhere in the statement, Trump accused DeSantis of "playing games" about his future plans within the party.
"The Fake News asks him if he's going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, 'I'm only focused on the Governor's race, I'm not looking into the future.' Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that's really not the right answer," the former president wrote.
Trump also once more dismissed suggestions that his one-time ally would beat him in a hypothetical match-up in the GOP primary for the 2024 presidential nomination, just like he beat other contenders in 2016.
"The Wall Street Journal loved Low Energy Jeb Bush, and a succession of other people as they rapidly disappeared from sight, finally falling in line with me after I easily knocked them out, one by one," Trump said.
"We're in exactly the same position now. They will keep coming after us, MAGA, but ultimately, we will win. Put America First and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Experts have predicted that Trump will continue to attack DeSantis as the former president attempts to hold onto the position of de-facto leader of the GOP following the party's floundering performance in the midterms.
A number of figures, including those within the GOP, have pointed the finger at Trump as a number of his MAGA and election-denying candidates lost their respective races, meaning the Republican Party still has not achieved a majority in the House as expected and may still end up failing to take control of the Senate from the Democrats.
As a result, DeSantis has emerged as a potential new firebrand figure who a number of Republicans want to lead the party into 2024 as Trump's influence appears to be turning voters off.
DeSantis, long thought to be Trump's main rival in the race to become the GOP's next presidential candidate, has not announced or formally hinted at any desire to run for president at the next election.
Before the midterm polls opened, Trump teased he will be making a "very big announcement" on November 15 at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist, said the next two years will see Trump continuing to "go after" DeSantis in an attempt to downplay the Florida governor's credentials.
"It's going to be Trump trying to do everything you can to destroy DeSantis, and DeSantis laughing while Trump deals with the legal problems he's going to face," Sheinkopf previously told Newsweek.
sultanpeppah on November 11st, 2022 at 14:17 UTC »
Oh, so Trump is saying that he had the FBI interfere in an election that his party wound up winning by a fraction of a point? An election where the FBI did in fact announce an investigation into the Democratic candidate? That is just fascinating.
swaggman75 on November 11st, 2022 at 14:08 UTC »
Wait I though the FBI was the enemy?
Goal_Posts on November 11st, 2022 at 14:07 UTC »
The same FBI that raided Mar a Lago?