- Trump tore into Ron DeSantis on Wednesday hours before the Florida governor’s expected 2024 run.
- DeSantis is set to join Elon Musk for a Twitter Spaces later tonight.
- The former president suggested DeSantis “desperately needs a personality transplant.”
Former President Donald Trump torched Ron DeSantis on social media on Wednesday, spending the final hours before DeSantis’ formal entry into the presidential field trashing his former ally with all-caps rants and personal insults.
“Ron DeSanctus can’t win the General Election (or get the Nomination) … ,” Trump wrote on Truth, his social media platform, listing off a series of positions DeSantis took as a member of Congress.
Trump went so far as to say that DeSantis, “desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet. A disloyal person!”
DeSantis is expected to announce his campaign during a Twitter Spaces chat with Elon Musk and investor David Sacks later Wednesday evening. DeSantis is also scheduled to appear on Fox News with former Congressman Trey Gowdy, who served with DeSantis in the House.
Trump and his allies have gone after DeSantis for months, an onslaught that has coincided with a notable decline in the Florida governor’s standing in very early national polling.
DeSantis has mostly avoided direct criticism of Trump, though that is expected to change as the race unfolds. A spokesperson for the governor did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. The Florida governor did tell Piers Morgan that the former president’s nicknames didn’t bother him, because he has won so much.
“I mean you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner because that’s what we’ve been able to do in Florida, is put a lot of points on the board and really take this state to the next level,” DeSantis said in March.
The reality is for now the former president has a gigantic lead over the growing 2024 field. Many Republican voters also still have favorable views of Trump, making it difficult to attack him without turning off potential voters that a challenger would need to become the frontrunner.