Former President Donald Trump is still enjoying a 40-point lead over second-place contender Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 primary (per the RCP average) but, in addition to attack ads and spin from keyboard warriors, Trump himself has chimed in to offer a "roomer" which, if true, would take his closest challenger out of the running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In a post to his Truth Social platform on Monday morning, Trump's latest effort to sideline the popular governor who won reelection last November in a landslide is "an interesting one."
"Roomer are strong in political circles that Ron DeSanctimonious, whose Presidential run is a shambles, and whose poll numbers have absolutely crashed, putting him 3rd and 4th in some states, will be dropping out of the Presidential race in order to run, in Florida, against Rick Scott for Senate," Trump posted Monday morning. "Now that's an interesting one, isn't it?"
Is “roomer” code for something? Will the Kraken finally be released? #TrustThePlan pic.twitter.com/bu2CHQv0oL
— Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) August 28, 2023
While Trump later corrected the typo in his post to "Rumors are strong...", it's just wishful thinking from the former president whose continued attacks on DeSantis — even after the Florida governor took a break from the campaign trail to lead his state through a hurricane — suggest Trump's campaign is not as confident about the primary as they say.
DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin shot Trump's "roomer" down quickly. "This is fake news. Clearly, Donald Trump and his army of consultants are panicked about Ron DeSantis’ winning debate performance and the strong momentum that has followed," remarked Griffin. "They know this is a two-man race, and we will carry this on to a win in this presidential primary. Instead of pushing fake news from New Jersey, the Trump campaign should be focused on getting their candidate on the campaign trail in Iowa and on the debate stage before it’s too late," DeSantis's camp added.
The latest volley from Trump, as noted above, comes after DeSantis announced he'd be pressing "pause" on campaigning for president to ensure the Sunshine State is prepared for Tropical Storm Idalia — expected to become a major hurricane before making landfall later this week — and to respond to whatever the strengthening storm brings.
We are preparing for impacts from Tropical Storm #Idalia, which is expected to strengthen over the coming days before impacting the Gulf Coast mid-week. Florida has resources on standby that are ready to deploy as needed.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 27, 2023
Follow @FLSERT for updates.