Donald Trump's Veiled Swipe at Ron DeSantis Backfires

A veiled swipe that former president Donald Trump took at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not appear to go down well with supporters during a GOP summit in his home state.

Trump and DeSantis both claimed the state as their turf during the Florida Republican Party's Freedom Summit in Kissimmee on Saturday.

Trump remains the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, while DeSantis—initially expected to be Trump's biggest rival after winning reelection in a landslide last year—remains a distant second and has struggled since launching his campaign in May.

DeSantis' challenges were on display as Trump called to the stage several Florida lawmakers who switched their endorsements from DeSantis ahead of Saturday's event.

During his speech, Trump bragged about his wide lead with Republican voters and touted his administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He went on to list several Republican governors who did a "great job" leading their states during the pandemic, notably omitting DeSantis and Florida.

"We did a great job on COVID," Trump said. "We never got the credit for the job we did. We let Republican governors keep their states open. Many of them did. Henry McMaster, South Carolina, did a great job. South Dakota did a great job. Tennessee did a great job. A lot of them. They kept them open."

As people in the audience yelled "Florida," Trump simply smiled and gave a thumbs up.

After a pause, he said: "I will say this. Every Republican governor did much better than the best Democrat governor. It's true."

Some took to social media to call out Trump.

"Trump gets visibly scared when the crowd calls him out for leaving Ron DeSantis out of his list of governors who did a great job handling COVID," Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis' bid for president, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Another DeSantis supporter wrote that Floridians "called out Donald Trump for slighting Florida once again when he left @RonDeSantis off the list of Republican governors who did a great job on Covid. He knew what he was doing and he got caught red-handed."

Another person wrote: "This clip is just incredible. Donald Trump lists off only the Republican states with governors that have endorsed him. And the crowd in Florida sees right through it."

Donald Trump's DeSantis Story Draws Laughs

But Trump drew laughs as he told the audience how DeSantis had begged for his endorsement during Florida's gubernatorial race in 2018.

DeSantis had "tears flowing from his eyes," Trump said.

He went on to perform an impression of the governor.

"'I need your endorsement, sir. I need your endorsement please. I need your frickin' endorsement, please.' So I gave him the endorsement," he said.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump and DeSantis campaigns for comment via email.