Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday to blast Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a bizarre post that immediately sparked confusion.
“‘Rob,’ My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!),” Trump said in the post.
The comment came after DeSantis formally announced his presidential campaign on the Twitter “Spaces” platform. However, the announcement was marred by a series of technical difficulties that caused the event to be delayed by at least 30 minutes.
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“Bonkers,” Matthew Brodsky, a political strategist and senior fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, tweeted in response to Trump’s post.
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“DeSantis has been talking about detailed and substantive policy issues for the last hour,” conservative writer A.G. Hamilton added. “This is what you get from Trump. If people want idiocracy and entertainment, Trump might be the better option. If you want substance on the right, DeSantis is it.”
“Nobody thinks this is sane; they’re just afraid to admit it,” said David Reaboi, a political commentator and fellow at Claremont Institute.
DeSantis’ official campaign launch came after months of speculation about his presidential ambitions. The announcement immediately makes him a top contender to win the Republican nomination next year.
DeSantis on Wednesday used his announcement to, among other things, punch back at the NAACP’s travel advisory targeting his state. The left-wing organization announced this week that it would issue a formal travel advisory warning Black Americans against visiting Florida.
DeSantis blasted the travel advisory as a “political stunt” before touting his state’s low crime rates and high number of Black-owned businesses. The comments came during a conversation hosted on Twitter’s “Spaces” platform Wednesday evening during which he officially announced his presidential campaign.
“Claiming that Florida is unsafe is a total farce,” DeSantis remarked. “I mean, are you kidding me? You look at cities around this country, they are awash in crime. In Florida, our crime rate is at a 50-year low. You look at the top 25 cities for crime in America, Florida does not have a single one amongst the top 25.”
