Video above: DeSantis announces ‘state DOGE task force’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis approaches the top of his second time period in workplace, he’s speaking up one potential inheritor to succeed him in 2026: his spouse, Casey DeSantis. And he is taking a shot at President Donald Trump ‘s choose to be the following governor.
Questioned by reporters in Tampa on Monday, DeSantis touted his spouse as a staunch conservative who would construct on his legacy and argued that the state’s first woman might pull in much more voters than he did. DeSantis gained a dominant reelection victory in 2022 with a virtually 20-point margin.
“She’s any individual that has, I feel, the intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative rules,” DeSantis stated of his spouse. “Something we’ve completed, she’d be capable of take to the following degree.”
The feedback got here days after the president threw his assist behind U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican who has been a prominent surrogate for Trump on the marketing campaign path and cable information.
“We’ve achieved victories in Florida,” DeSantis stated Monday. “A man like Byron, he simply hasn’t been part of any of the victories that we’ve had right here over the left over these final years.”
DeSantis’ feedback create a possible faceoff between the Republican governor and the president who soundly defeated him final 12 months for the Republican presidential nomination. DeSantis, who’s term-limited, might run for president once more in 2028 and has labored to rebuild his relationship with Trump.
The aspirations of the state’s first woman have lengthy been the topic of Tallahassee parlor speak. That chatter has grown louder in latest weeks as tensions have bubbled between the governor and Trump’s allies within the Florida Legislature.
“Byron Donalds could be a really Nice and Highly effective Governor for Florida and, ought to he determine to run, can have my Full and Complete Endorsement,” Trump wrote Thursday on social media. “RUN, BYRON, RUN!”
Donalds’ workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. He addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference final week after Trump’s put up and instructed the viewers to “keep tuned” about his future plans.
Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, one other staunch Trump ally, criticized DeSantis’ feedback in a put up on X, previously Twitter.
“Man it hurts me to see this,” Gaetz stated. “Governor DeSantis, don’t you bear in mind whenever you, (Donalds) and I had been working collaboratively to get you elected in 2018? We actually had been your debate prep crew.”
