Trump, former GOP lawmaker mock DeSantis

Former President Donald Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for dipping in the 2024 polls, awarding him the same nickname he once gave to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

‘I should call him Rocket Man, but now he’s Rocket Man that’s crashing,’ Trump said in an interview for the Full Send Podcast. ‘His polls are terrible. I’m leading him in every state.’ 

Since late March, DeSantis has seen a dip in the 2024 Republican primary polls, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average, while Trump’s numbers have improved. 

Now Trump is receiving 53.3 percent of the vote, while DeSantis is lagging behind at 22.3 percent support. 

DeSantis has been hobbled, in part, by negative stories coming out about his personality, including one Friday morning in Politico Playbook, courtesy of former Republican Rep. David Trott, who called the Floridian rising star an ‘a******.’ 

Former President Donald Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for dipping in the 2024 polls, awarding him the same nickname he once gave to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

‘I sat right next to DeSantis for two years on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and he never said a single word to me,’ Trott had written to Playbook’s authors. ‘I was new to Congress, and he didn’t introduce himself or even say hello.’ 

Playbook’s authors called up Trott to get a fuller picture.  

Former Rep. David Trott, a Michigan Republican, called DeSantis an ‘a******’ in an interview published Friday by Politico Playbook 

‘I go to my first [House Foreign Affairs Committee] hearing early, and DeSantis showed up right at the gavel time and didn’t say hello or introduce himself,’ Trott said. ‘And then the next hearing, the same thing happened. I think the third time it happened, I thought, “Oh, this guy’s not ever going to say hello to me,”‘ the Michigan Republican recalled.

Trott eventually introduced himself to DeSantis. 

The former congressman noticed that the now governor had a certain political knack.  

‘He’s got an ability to size up the electorate and figure out what issues and hot buttons he needs to press to advance his political ambitions,’ Trott said. ‘There’s no question there’s a talent there. No taking that away from him.’ 

But Trott also described DeSantis as someone you wouldn’t want to have a beer with.

‘If you’re going to go into politics, kind of a fundamental skill that you should have is likability. I don’t think [he] has that,’ the ex-congresman said. ‘He never developed any relationships with other members that I know of. You’d never see him talking on the floor with other people or palling around. He’s just a very arrogant guy, very focused on Ron DeSantis.’ 

Trott told Politico that he wasn’t surprised when a number of Florida lawmakers recently got behind Trump.  

‘He wasn’t really liked when he was in Congress,’ he recalled. ‘And now it’s coming home to, you know, prove out as some of the Florida delegation endorsed Trump and and some of the donors, you know, think he’s kind of awkward in terms of how he interacts with them.’ 

Trott said that if DeSantis’ pre-presidential campaign was playing out differently he might have thought he was the problem. 

‘But I think there’s something more at work here,’ the ex-congressman surmised.

‘I think he’s an a******,’ Trott said. ‘I don’t think he cares about people.’