Rumors continue to loom about who will head the Republican 2024 presidential ticket. Many say a Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) bid would be the golden ticket. However, that may just be a pipe dream.
In an interview with Breitbart, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) dismissed the idea that DeSantis would challenge the former president in a 2024 GOP presidential primary.
"I think that's highly unlikely," Gaetz said, adding that DeSantis and Trump "are on the same side."
Expanding on his predictions, Gaetz said he thinks DeSantis will see the "energy and magnetism" Trump has to offer Republican voters in Florida and throughout the U.S. and decide it would be better for him to run when the former president is no longer in the picture.
Gaetz believes that Trump will go after the 2024 presidential ticket. However, he says that it's more likely that DeSantis will wait to run in a future campaign in 2028.
"What I can tell you is these guys are on the same side…I think President Trump really views DeSantis's success with great pride, that he took someone who was in Congress and that he saw great potential in and he nurtured that leadership that Ron DeSantis has now displayed to the world," Gaetz told Breitbart.
He downplayed headlines that accused Trump and DeSantis of ever having been enemies, claiming that the media created those thoughts to find ways of causing disagreements between the two.
"My expectation is they will both be back in the White House one day. I think Donald Trump will probably be back in the White House in 2024, but for many years I've held the view that Ron DeSantis will be president one day and I've seen nothing that would in any way dampen that," Gaetz predicted.
Gaetz also said that the Florida governor is one of Trump's best campaigners and that the two make a great team. However, DeSantis is still needed in the Sunshine State for now.
"There is a reason we won Florida by such a large margin—a margin that people never really see in Florida—in the 2020 election for Donald Trump. It was because he and Ron DeSantis were out there hand in glove campaigning together and getting crowds fired up together," Gaetz said, adding, "We're going to need both of those great leaders in order to I think have a catchment apparatus for the energy and enthusiasm that is out there for Republicans."
Last month, when asked whether Trump would consider the possibility of having DeSantis as a running mate, the former president didn't rule the thought out.
"Well, I get along with him," Trump said, adding, "I was very responsible for his success, because I endorsed him and he went up like a rocket ship."
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