Now that the Governor is out of the race, the former President has nothing but praise for him.
Former President Donald Trump’s victory speech after the New Hampshire Primary included some praise for Florida’s Governor.
Trump compared Nikki Haley’s insistence that she performed well in the Granite State to Ron DeSantis, who finished second in Iowa but exited the race days afterward, in the wake of mixed signals from his campaign regarding travel plans and interview commitments as it became clear he couldn’t win the First In the Nation Primary.
“She’s doing like a speech like she won. She didn’t win, she lost. And, you know, last, last week we had a little bit of a problem and if you remember Ron was very upset because she ran up and she pretended she won Iowa, and I looked around and said didn’t she come in third?”
Trump noted that Haley was similarly triumphant after the Iowa caucuses last week.
“I said ‘she’s taking a victory lap’ and we beat her so badly. She was, but Ron beat her also. You know, Ron came in second and he left, she came in third and she’s still hanging around.”
This is the second straight night where Trump went out of his way to praise his opponent. On Monday, he said DeSantis did “a very good job” as a candidate, and expressed his interest in “working with Ron.”
Trump’s words could be interpreted as yet another olive branch to a defeated opponent, though it’s far from clear how enthused DeSantis is with being the junior partner in the dynamic. He rejected a legislative proposal to budget $5 million for Trump’s legal defense on Monday, and said Tuesday his voters in Iowa had “checked out” before the caucuses even though they thought he was the better candidate.
Meanwhile, the New Hampshire results show DeSantis voters have moved on, with the Governor well below 1% at this writing.
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