Florida Governor Ron DeSantis demanded a face-to-face debate with former President Donald Trump and said that the GOP front-runner's political failings "turned Georgia and Arizona blue."
DeSantis also accused him of avoiding the campaign trail—charges that Republicans leveled at Joe Biden in 2020.
And people can now purchase "Trump's veto pen" for $7.8 trillion at DeSantis campaign's online store, where he used to sell flip flops criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci and a sleeve of two golf balls proclaiming "Florida's governor has a pair."
This joke is meant to draw attention to the Trump White House's debt-related contributions.
All of this is a part of DeSantis' recent shift toward a more assertive stance, which he made after months of vacillating between ignoring and engaging with the former president and as a renewed feeling of urgency hovers over the race to try and halt Trump's march toward the nomination.
Messages that persuade Republicans that Trump is somehow unlike the figure who upended politics in 2016 or the president who left the White House after a loss in 2021 are the driving force behind this stepped-up attack.
Like Trump, other 2024 candidates have planned to compare their campaigns to his past ones.
DeSantis has criticized Trump instead for his 2016 campaign promise to have Mexico pay for a new border wall, calling it "an empty campaign slogan."
This new campaign chapter is taking shape with just over 100 days until the Iowa caucuses, where a strong showing, if not an outright victory, is crucial to DeSantis' viability.
Additionally, it coincides with growing concerns among conservative fundraisers and operatives that it will become harder to overtake Trump's advantage in national polls and important primary states.
The DeSantis team is convinced that the race is still far from over, and the timing of these most recent broadsides coincides with the fact that 2024 is only now beginning to make an impression on many voters.
On the other hand, Trump claimed at a rally in Iowa that DeSantis' political future is "toast" and compared the Florida governor to a "very injured falling bird" in the 2024 presidential election.
What do you think about the escalating feud between DeSantis and Trump?
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