A report shows following DeSantis’s announcement that he was running for president, the Trump campaign team sent at least 13 emails criticizing the Florida Republican. Numerous additional social media postings targeting the governor Trump once championed and still claims credit for electing in 2018 provided more support for those assaults.
The message came with a link to a clip containing the alleged evidence of plagiarism.
Trump has successfully trademarked the slogan “Make America great again.” He always includes it in his talks. It’s printed on signs, clothing, and almost everything he can think of. However, he was hardly the first elected official to use such a strategy. In his acceptance address at the 1980 Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan adopted the term.
Last week, former South Carolina governor and potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley released a memo in which she criticized Florida governor and 2024 candidate Ron DeSantis (R), painting him as a cheap copy of President Donald Trump and echoing many of Trump’s points of view about his past protege.
Haley’s campaign document contains side-by-side photos of Trump and DeSantis making identical motions during speeches. Haley criticizes DeSantis for seeming to “mimic” Donald Trump on everything, from policy beliefs to body movements.
To back up Trump’s allegation that he guided DeSantis’ political ascension, Haley’s team noted that DeSantis touted his affiliation with Trump throughout his 2018 race for governor.
The material targets DeSantis’ demeanor, a common Trump strategy, claiming that the obvious distinction between the two is DeSantis’ failure to connect directly with voters, a reference to the common perception that DeSantis comes off as stiff and unapproachable in public.
When Haley declared her campaign in February, she became Trump’s first Republican opponent. While Haley told the Associated Press in 2021 that she would not run in the GOP primary and instead planned to support Donald Trump should he run again as president, she left the door open to changing her mind, saying it was something to talk about later.
