After taunting Ron DeSantis with an ad featuring his alleged predilection for eating pudding with his fingers, the team behind Donald Trump‘s 2024 campaign is reportedly engaged in full-blown psychological warfare with the Florida governor.
On Tuesday, Team Trump unveiled a series of key endorsements in DeSantis’ own state in an effort to drive him out of the Republican primary. There was reportedly heavy debate over when to reveal the endorsements, which would undermine DeSantis in the eyes of the Florida GOP, and at one point Trump was personally overseeing the rollout in a gleeful effort to stick it to the governor.
Via Rolling Stone:
Previously, the idea was to release the endorsements at once, likely Thursday or Friday of this week. However, by the weekend, plans had changed: It was decided that the Trump campaign would drip them out at different points in the coming days — including on Tuesday when DeSantis would be on the ground in Washington, D.C., trying to lock down his own endorsements from the Florida delegation. The ploy was part of a deliberate effort to, in the words of one of the sources familiar with the matter, “embarrass and mindf*ck DeSantis” as much as possible, via a steady drip.
To add insult to injury, the Trump endorsements arrived on the heels of Disney firing another successful shot at DeSantis in their ongoing war. After DeSantis threatened to build a state prison next to Walt Disney World on Monday, the House of Mouse announced a massive Pride event hours later in a sign that Disney is not the least bit intimidated by the Florida governor’s tough guy act.
(Via Rolling Stone)