After former president Donald Trump recently made comments criticizing and mocking Ron DeSantis, the newly re-elected Florida governor is firing back.
In the final days of this year's midterm elections, Trump and DeSantis held dueling Florida rallies. At the former president's event, he unveiled his newest nickname for Gov. DeSantis, calling him 'Ron DeSanctimonious.'
When asked about the recent comments at a press conference in Fort Walton Beach on Tuesday, DeSantis said that it's all "just noise."
"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?" the governor added. "If you do that, then none of that stuff matters. And that is what we've done. We've focused on results and leadership."
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With many Republicans regarding the Florida governor as the future of their party and the former president as a drag on the party, DeSantis is seen as a formidable foe for Trump in the fight for the White House.
As tensions rise, Trump is turning to a tactic the country has seen from him before: insulting and verbally attacking his opponents.
“This is how President Trump fights,” said Michael Caputo, a longtime adviser who worked on Trump’s first campaign.
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In a lengthy statement, Trump called DeSantis an “average REPUBLICAN governor with great Public Relations," and voiced fury that DeSantis has not publicly ruled out challenging him.
"I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night," said DeSantis, referring to the 2022 midterm elections.
DeSantis won re-election by a nearly 20-point margin, performing well even in many longtime Democratic strongholds.
"The fact of the matter is it was the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida," he said.
The same night, many of Trump's preferred candidates lost races from Pennsylvania to Arizona, which spurred some conservatives to lash out at the former president.
In the days since the election, Trump has also made racist remarks about another potential Republican presidential candidate, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, saying his name sounds Chinese.
