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Lara Trump has hit out at Ron DeSantis over the Florida Governor’s “lacklustre” campaign launch, describing it as “an omen” for the future.
Governor DeSantis launched his presidential campaign on Wednesday (local time) during a conversation with Elon Musk that was broadcast live on Twitter.
Although the Republican Party hopeful eventually answered a series of policy questions from guests, the conversation was initially plagued by audio and connection problems, making it a source of ridicule online.
Asked about Governor DeSantis’s entry into the presidential race by Englishheadline Australia’s Erin Molan, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law said the lesson from the announcement was “don’t try something new”.
“You’ve had this very hyped presidential announcement underway for so long… and finally, the moment came and it was just so lacklustre and kind of fell apart,” Ms Trump said.
The wife of Eric Trump says she gave DeSantis credit for “thinking outside of the box and doing something a little different,” but some people might read more into the technical difficulties.
“Some might say that could be an omen to come, we will have to wait and see,” she said.
This is certainly how the former US president responded to the launch with a series of posts on his own social media site, Truth Social.
“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!!” President Trump said.
The Florida Governor, who was re-elected in the normally purple state by a margin of almost 20 per cent last year, is widely expected to be Trump’s strongest rival for the Republican nomination.
But the former president’s daughter-in-law said she didn’t think the dynamics of the race had changed for Trump.
“Nothing has really changed as far as we’re concerned… we knew this day would ultimately come,” Lara Trump said, before claiming that his entry into the race could actually help her father-in-law.
“Even when you have Ron DeSantis in the mix, the polling indicates that Donald Trump is getting well over 50 per cent of the vote on the Republican side of things.
“So the more people you actually add in – Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, whomever it might be – they ultimately split the rest of that vote and it actually makes it in some ways easier for Donald Trump to ultimately become the Republican nominee.”
Ms Trump also echoed the former president’s claims that the Florida Governor was “disloyal”.
“If my father in law had a conversation with him, and he said he was not going to run for president and now he is, yes, I guess that’s a lie. I guess that’s disloyal,” she said.
President Trump made the claims in the series of lengthy Truth Social posts, much of which was in all caps.
“Look, Ron DeSanctimonious came to me asking for help,” Trump posted.
“He was getting ready to drop out of the race — Ran a terrible campaign! Ron told me he had one last chance, my Support & Endorsement, which Putnam, and everyone else, wanted also. I gave it to Ron, and the race was over. In one day, he went from losing badly, to winning by a lot. With 3 LARGE TRUMP RALLIES, he WON THE GENERAL ELECTION in an upset. DISLOYAL!!!”
The former US President said “Ron DeSanctus can’t win the General Election (or get the Nomination)” before attacking his personality.
“He desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet. A disloyal person!” Trump said.
For her part, Lara Trump said she didn’t think it mattered that the Florida Governor had entered the race because the American people “want [Trump] back as president”.
She also claimed he may end up regretting running now rather than in four years’ time.
“A lot of people look at Ron DeSantis and they say, well, we would really consider voting for him in 2028, but he decided to do it now,” Ms Trump said.
“I think he’s always had aspirations to run for president and I think it’ll be probably very upsetting when it doesn’t work out for him.
“He will have vacated his seat as the governor of this state. He will have lost a bid for president and I don’t know ultimately where that will put him with the people of the state of Florida.
“Obviously time will tell but I think it could be a decision that he might live to regret one day, we’ll see.”
