Who is Ron DeSantis,
the governor of Florida
who dropped out of the Republican race on Sunday, ending the bitterest rivalry with Trump in the race for the White House?
Once considered a "Trump with a brain," DeSantis was able to become
a powerful rival
against the former president, who in return unloaded all his explosive verbiage on him: he called him "Desantimony" or "Desanctus."
But on Sunday night, when the former Florida governor dropped out of the race after losing in the first vote in Iowa,
Trump saved the mockery
and called his sudden ally "a gracious guy
. "
For Trump, it has become a family ritual
to welcome the endorsement of someone who tried to confront him.
But notable was his turnaround at Sunday's rally in New Hampshire when he praised DeSantis by ending perhaps
the most bitter rivalry of the 2024 Republican campaign.
"I just want to thank Ron and congratulate him for doing a very good job," Trump said at the beginning of his remarks.
“He was very kind and he supported me.
I appreciate it and I also look forward to working with Ron.”
Trump described DeSantis as
“a really fantastic person.”
Ron DeSantis abandoned the Republican race, paving the way for Trump to the presidential election.
Photo: Reuters
Earlier in the day, DeSantis said by video that he would end his campaign two days before the nation's first Republican primary in New Hampshire (it's this Tuesday). But, Trump's jubilation on Sunday night aside, it
wasn't the warmest of backrests.
“It is clear to me that the majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said,
offering matter-of-fact analysis with a forced smile,
without adding applause for Trump.
“I signed a pledge to support the Republican candidate and I will honor that pledge,” he continued, before adding a dig at the remaining contender,
Nikki Haley
.
DeSantis described the former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina governor as a replacement for “the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism.”
The remaining contender, Nikki Haley, with almost no chance.
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP
Seemingly unmoved by DeSantis' approach,
Trump struck a tone of camaraderie as fellow political combatants
.
"I'll tell you, it's not easy," Trump said Sunday night in Rochester.
“You think it's easy to do these things, right?
Is not easy".
Trump then moved quickly into his typical rally speech, mixing casual attacks on President Joe Biden, the political media, “the deep state” and “warmongers” in Washington,
and the criminal justice system that has indicted him four times
, with
91 counts of serious crimes
and pending multiple trials.
He spent more time criticizing Haley than praising DeSantis, considering her a tool of the political establishment he has despised.
He made broad promises of peace and prosperity, promising, without offering any detailed plans, that
he would reverse inflation and end Russia's war in Ukraine
.
And
he repeated his lies
that his loss to Biden in 2020 was due to fraud.
Trump in New Hampshire.
A boisterous crowd laughed, sang and roared all around at their candidate.
Photo: Reuters
A boisterous crowd at Rochester's historic opera house
laughed, sang and roared all around.
Who is Ron DeSantis
DeSantis, who
grew up under Trump's wing
and gained popularity when he opposed closing the state's schools and businesses during the pandemic, initially tried to avoid criticizing the former president, whose endorsement helped him win the 2018 gubernatorial primary and continue his career.
47-year-old DeSantis is married to a former television host.
He is an ultra-conservative, military man, lawyer, who fights “for freedom”, against Disney, sexual education in schools, communism and illegal immigration.
DeSantis grew up under Trump's wing.
Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP
But DeSantis could not gain traction in the primaries because
the Trump base remained loyal to their leader,
despite the 91 charges in different trials that the mogul faces, and Trump steadily consolidated support and rose in the polls to later seal a victory. landslide in Iowa.
With information from the Associated Press and Paula Lugones, from Washington