Trump attacks rival as he tries to bulldoze nomination race
DONALD TRUMP kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign with a blistering attack on Florida governor Ron Desantis, his main rival for the Republican nomination.
The former president warned that Mr Desantis risked ending his political career if he had the temerity to stand against him.
“If he runs, that’s fine. I’m way up in the polls,” Mr Trump said. “He’s going to have to do what he wants to do, but he may run. I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in. He had no chance. His political life was over.” Mr Trump yesterday addressed the party faithful in New Hampshire and South Carolina – two of the earliest states to hold primaries.
His attack on Mr Desantis is a taste of what lies in store for any Republicans who seek the nomination.
In 2016 Mr Trump, who started as a rank outsider, obliterated the field with a series of verbal assaults on his rivals.
Mr Desantis, 44, who has yet to formally announce he is running for the White House, has already been dismissed as “sanctimonious” by Mr Trump.
The 76-year-old is leading the field nationally but in New Hampshire, a poll put Mr Desantis 12 points ahead among Republican voters. Mr Trump, however, played down the threat posed by his potential rival.
“I don’t think we have competition this time, to be honest,” he said. “We are so far ahead in the polls.”
The only possible rival mentioned by Mr Trump in his speeches was John Bolton, a former national security adviser, who was dismissed as “one of those stupid people” who were inconsistently Republican.
A host of other names are expected to throw their hats into the ring, including Mike Pence, the former vice-president, Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state, and Nikki Haley, the ex-governor of South Carolina who also served as Mr Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Significantly, neither Ms Haley nor Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator and another possible candidate, were present when Mr Trump spoke to party activists on Saturday.
Despite facing the threat of a blizzard of litigation, Mr Trump appeared to be champing at the bit to step up his campaign.
“This campaign will be about the future. This campaign will be about issues. Joe Biden has put America on the fast track to ruin and destruction and we will ensure that he does not receive four more years,” he said in Columbia, South Carolina.