donald trump and the governor of florida, Ron DeSantismet privately on Sunday morning, April 28 at Miamiaccording to people familiar with the matter, breaking a years-long coldness between the presumptive Republican nominee and his once main primary rival.
The allies mediated the meeting in hopes of a possible détente between the two men, and advisors from trump they expect DeSantis leverage its donor network to help raise significant sums of money for the general election, the people familiar with the matter said. Like others interviewed for this story, the people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.
The couple met for several hours and DeSantis agreed to help trump. The meeting was friendly, according to a person with direct knowledge.
trump and allied groups have lagged behind the president Biden and his allies in the search for money. DeSantis has built a wide network of wealthy patrons whose assistance would be valuable in helping trump to try to close the gap, and is popular among some Republican voters who are exhausted by trump.
There is also an incentive for DeSantis establish a closer relationship. People close to DeSantis have said that it is unsustainable for him to continue having a tense relationship with trump, especially when he looks at his political future. Republican donors and advisers consider him weakened after the beating he gave him trump in the primaries.
The meeting was orchestrated by Steve Witkoffa real estate investor and developer Florida that they both know, and that he attended it. Witkoff called the former president’s team and asked him to meet with DeSantissaid a person familiar with the matter.
trump and DeSantis They hadn’t spoken since the end of a primary season, where DeSantis dropped out after a disappointing finish in Iowaafter months of attacks trump and his supporters. DeSantis offered a video supporting trump the day he abandoned the race.
“It is clear to me that the majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance”said DeSantis in the video he published that Sunday afternoon on the social network x. “They saw his presidency hampered by relentless resistance, and they see how Democrats use lawfare to this day to attack him.”.
But DeSantis has not campaigned for trump nor has it helped him since and, in fact, has made indirect criticisms of trump. TO DeSantis it stung the way trump and his team treated him during the primaries, people close to him said. governor of florida.
In a call with supporters in February after dropping out, DeSantis said trump had political baggage and criticized some in the orbit of trump. “I think he has people in his inner circle who were part of our orbit years ago and who we let go, and I think part of that is that they just have an ax to grind.”said DeSantis. The comments angered the team. trump.
At that time, Chris LaCivitaa senior advisor to trumpI call DeSantis “sad little man.” DeSantis is widely detested within the orbit of trumpbut the former president has shown a willingness to be lenient and remarkably transactional when it benefits him.
“Am I going to use the name Ron DeSanctimonious?”he said after DeSantis would support him. “I said that name is officially retired.”. The two men have never been personally close, but trump supported DeSantis in 2018 for governor of florida – and once saw him as a rising star in the party.
In the last weeks, DeSantis held a donor event at a resort in Floridaand people close to him said he is potentially interested in running for president again in 2028.
During the Republican primaries, trump He told his advisors that he also wanted to harm DeSantis by 2028. But in recent weeks he has focused his attention on Biden and his criminal trial, and the allies of trump They say that they would see with good eyes that DeSantis raise money for him.
(c) 2024, The Washington Post
