War appears to be brewing between defeated former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. During a recent interview with the conservative One America News Network, Trump took a swipe at DeSantis, referring to him as a “gutless politician” for not saying whether they received a COVID-19 booster shot. But Trump’s animosity toward DeSantis goes deeper than what has been reported, according to conservative pundit Ann Coulter.
In an email to The New York Times, Coulter predicted the end of Trump’s hegemony in the GOP, saying the former president “is done.”
“Trump is done. You guys should stop obsessing over him,” Coulter wrote, according to an article published in the Times on Sunday about the mounting tensions between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) amid speculation of a potential showdown for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
As noted in The Times article, rumors that DeSantis is angling for a possible White House bid, his rise within the GOP and his growing national profile have enraged Trump, who sees the Florida governor as owing his political success to him.
Now, Trump is reportedly fuming about DeSantis’s refusal to publicly support Trump’s 2024 run if the former president chooses to mount another bid for the White House, and has begun to sharpen his stance on DeSantis publicly.
In an interview with a South Florida radio host last month, Trump appeared to issue a challenge to the Florida governor, saying that he would beat DeSantis in a 2024 primary if he decided to run.
“If he wanted to run, that’s OK with me,” Trump said. “I think we’d win by a lot.”
Coulter pounced on Trump over those comments in a tweet last week calling the former president a “liar and con man.”
“EXCLUSIVE: Trump is demanding to know Ron DeSantis’s booster status, and I can now reveal it,” Coulter wrote. “He was a loyal booster when Trump ran in 2016, but then he learned our president was a liar and con man whose grift was permanent. I hope that clears things up.”
EXCLUSIVE: Trump is demanding to know Ron DeSantis's booster status, and I can now reveal it. He was a loyal booster when Trump ran in 2016, but then he learned our president was a liar and con man whose grift was permanent. I hope that clears things up.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 12, 2022
