Donald Trump loves to cook up dunning nicknames for his biggest enemies — which apparently now include Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, who might give Trump a run for his money in the next presidential primary.
Trump mocked him as “Ron DeSanctimonious” in a rally speech Saturday in Pennsylvania, where the former president touted poll numbers — but did not provide the source of the figures — with his possible matchups in a 2024 run for the Oval Office.
The nickname was not entirely original.
Longtime Trump ally and GOP political operative Roger Stone just last month warned “Ron DeSanctimonious” in a post on Telegram that it would be “treachery” if he ran against Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. Stone called DeSantis an “ingrate,” who he claimed owes his position to Trump’s support.
Trump launched the dig against DeSantis in his speech, then moved onto his astonishing poll numbers in the latest indication he may be close to announcing his candidacy. It wasn’t immediately clear where the poll numbers originated.
“We’re winning big, big, big in the Republican Party for the nomination like nobody’s ever seen before,” said Trump as the numbers went up on a jumbo screen.
“There it is, Trump at 71 [percent]. Ron DeSanctimonious at 10 percent,” Trump said. “Mike Pence at 7 — oh, Mike Pence doing better than I thought,” he said to laughter from the crowd.