Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would be “working in a Dairy Queen” if it weren’t for former President Donald Trump, according to longtime Republican activist Roger Stone.
Stone, a close Trump ally, made the remark during an interview with David Brody of Real America’s Voice and a video of his comments was shared to Twitter by PatriotTakes on Monday, which describes itself as “researchers monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism.”
DeSantis is widely seen as a potential rival to Trump for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination despite the fact the former president is seen as playing a key role in helping DeSantis win his 2018 governor’s race.
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Stone said that if DeSantis runs for president “it would be an extraordinary act of political treachery and disloyalty.”
“Ron DeSantis became governor solely because of Donald Trump,” Stone said. “He was an unknown congressman, his campaign was mired in single digits, he was having fundraising problems.”
Stone said that, with the exception of U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, “every single Republican county chairman in Florida, every elected Republican in both houses of the legislature and every Republican member of the congressional delegation” had backed DeSantis’ 2018 rival for the GOP nomination, then Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam.
“Ron DeSantis’ campaign was turbocharged by a tweeted endorsement by Donald Trump,” Stone went on. “Otherwise, he would be working at a Dairy Queen right now. Trump had to campaign here in Florida in the last two weeks of 2018 to drag DeSantis over the finish line.”
DeSantis has emerged as a likely rival to Trump for the GOP’s 2024 nomination and recent polling suggests he has a genuine chance of defeating the former president in a primary.
A YouGov/The Economist poll conducted among 390 adults from December 17 to 20 found DeSantis leading with 48 percent support to Trump’s 40 percent, while a YouGov/Yahoo News poll found the governor leading with 45 percent to Trump’s 43 percent.
The YouGov/Yahoo News poll was conducted from December 15 to 19 among 450 registered voters.
Trump has formally announced his intention to run for president in 2024 but DeSantis has made no such announcement despite speculation that he may run for the Republican nomination.
Stone is not the only Trump ally who’s taken aim at DeSantis. My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell said earlier in December, without providing evidence, that the governor may have benefited from voter fraud in this year’s midterms where DeSantis won reelection as governor.
DeSantis has recently taken aim at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and asked the Florida state Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate potential “wrongdoing” surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. The court has approved that grand jury.
Some critics have seen the governor’s focus on COVID-19 vaccines as way to appeal to Trump voters who may be skeptical about the vaccination, which the former president has long promoted.
“Desantis believes this is an issue he can use to beat Trump,” wrote attorney and former Republican Ron Filipkowski on December 13.
“The MAGA base is anti-vax. It’s the one thing they strongly disagree with Trump on. Alex Jones, for one, said he would support Desantis if Trump didn’t come out against the vaccines. He didn’t. This is very calculated,” he said.
Newsweek has contacted Ron DeSantis’ office for comment.