Can we say the gloves are off in the 2024 GOP primary?
That is, at least when it comes to attacks from former President Donald Trump against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. For his part, DeSantis has continued to brush off Trump’s criticisms as being “part of the job” when you’re leading and getting things done, a veiled swipe back without naming names or getting in the mud.
The most recent iteration of the Trump-DeSantis feud took on a new flavor in recent days. Over at Truth Social, Trump’s personal social media platform, the former president re-posted and affirmed some content alleging that DeSantis used to party with high school girls during his time as a teacher:
Former President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Tuesday, seizing on a story that his rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination partied with underage students when he worked as a teacher at a Georgia high school.
In five successive posts Tuesday to his social media site, Truth Social, Trump went after DeSantis. Two of them referenced a story published by the far-right website Hillreporter.com that claimed DeSantis had been photographed “partying with underaged students” at the Darlington School, a private K-12 school in Rome, Ga., where DeSantis taught from 2001-02.
Trump reposted a photograph originally posted by a Truth Social member who goes by the handle Dong-Chan Lee, and who uses a profile photo of the alt-right meme Pepe the Frog, featuring Trump’s signature hairdo. The image showed what appeared to be DeSantis flanked by three young women that had been captioned, “Here is Ron DeSanctimonious grooming high school girls with alcohol as a teacher.”
Trump, who so far is the only Republican to have formally declared himself a candidate for the 2024 presidential election, added his own commentary to go with the photo. “That’s not Ron, is it?” Trump wrote. “He would never do such a thing!”
Trump then doubled-down and blatantly accused DeSantis of drinking alcohol with underage girls:
In another repost, Trump added more sarcastic commentary, writing “No way?” when highlighting further commentary from the same Truth Social user who posted the photo of DeSantis.
“Ron DeSantis was having a ‘drink’ party with his students when he was a high school teacher. Having drinks with underage girls and cuddling with them certainly look [sic] pretty gross and ephebophiliaesque,” Trump posted.
Here’s a sampling of the content:
Donald Trump goes at Desantis again on truth social. He’s basically calling Desantis a groomer. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/k1v0uq2Zo2
— CCG BRYSON (@RealBrysonGray) February 7, 2023
The summation of this unprovoked attack appears to be coming from a state of fear and/or panic within the Trump campaign. How else can one explain such a desperate attempt to smear DeSantis’ name? The images first circulated back in October of last year but didn’t make much impact at the time.
With the 2024 GOP primary now getting underway, it’s making more of a splash thanks to Trump’s promotion of the content.
Obviously, DeSantis hasn’t yet declared his intention to run for president. Everyone expects him to do so sometime later this spring or summer. These kinds of attacks could be Trump’s strategy to try and derail a DeSantis 2024 campaign before it gets out of the gate but it’s not clear it will have any impact.
What it does do, however, is continue making Trump look like the weaker party here. If he is so dominant and commanding of the GOP primary electorate, why bother smearing a popular, fellow Republican? There’s almost an heir of trying to intentionally provoke DeSantis to respond and bash Trump, perhaps in a way to try and drive a wedge into any MAGA voters who have taken a fancy to the Sunshine State governor.
Whatever the case, the attacks from Trump against DeSantis appear to be increasing as the weeks go by.
At some point, this will all come to a head on a debate stage.
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