Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images and Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Donald Trump said Ron DeSantis may have ended up working at a cigar store without his backing in 2018.
“He’s got no personality,” Trump told reporters on Saturday.
Trump said earlier in March that DeSantis may have had to work at Pizza Hut without his support.
Donald Trump took some time off from rage-posting on social media on Saturday night to slam his former protegé turned key Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“He’s got no personality,” Trump said of DeSantis, speaking to NBC News and the Daily Mail. Trump was talking to a group of reporters on his plane, Trump Force One, during a flight from Texas to Florida on Saturday, both outlets reported.
“He wouldn’t be a governor. Right. You know where he’d be right now? Probably working either at a cigar store or a law firm,” Trump added, per the Daily Mail. NBC News also referenced the comments in its report.
Trump made the statement on his way back to Mar-a-Lago from his campaign rally in Waco, Texas.
During the rally, Trump mocked DeSantis, drawing a muted response from a mostly silent audience.
“Sir if you’ll endorse me I’ll win, please, please sir, endorse me,” Trump said on Saturday, pretending to be a crying DeSantis. Trump was once again claiming without substantiation that DeSantis cried in front of him in 2018 when asking for an endorsement in his gubernatorial race.
Earlier this month, Trump claimed credit for DeSantis’ career success while digging into some Kentucky Fried Chicken on his plane, per Bloomberg.
“Remember, this Ron DeSanctimonious would be right now working probably at a law firm or maybe a Pizza Hut,” Trump said after a 2024 campaign event in Iowa, per Bloomberg.
Trump’s jabs about where DeSantis would be without his endorsement are the latest salvo in an increasingly ugly feud between the two.
Trump has continually savaged DeSantis in his speeches, calling him everything from “average” to “very disloyal.” He has also given DeSantis nicknames like “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “RINO globalist.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis has avoided engaging head-on with Trump’s attacks. He’s brushed off Trump’s nicknames and held back from retaliating, instead sticking to thinly veiled insults and jabs about Trump’s legal troubles.
But DeSantis isn’t fully backing away from the fight, either. Last week, he suggested in an interview with talk show host Piers Morgan that if he runs against Trump in the GOP primary, he will win.
Representatives for DeSantis and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.