DeSantis skirts around Trump’s criticism as presidential rumors take hold

Just hours ahead of former President Donald Trump’s expected announcement of a 2024 presidential run, Gov. Ron DeSantis skirted around a question about Trump’s criticism of him.

DeSantis, who is largely expected to also be eyeing a run for president, was asked at a news conference Tuesday morning what he thought of Trump’s “less-than-flattering” comments made about him. The question referred to a lengthy statement put out by Trump last week where he bashed DeSantis as ungrateful and “average.”

DeSantis, as he has done often lately, avoided any direct mention of Trump in his answer. Instead, he talked about criticisms from “corporate media,” saying, “When you’re leading, when you’re getting things done, you take incoming fire, that’s just the nature of it.”

He then referred to Florida Republicans’ landslide victories up and down the ballot, including his victory over Democratic challenger Charlie Crist.

“At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from Tuesday night,” DeSantis said.

Just two days after the election, Trump put out a lengthy statement where he accused DeSantis of “playing games” and called him “an average Republican governor with great public relations.”

Trump endorsed DeSantis for governor in 2018, a move that had major sway in the race against Republican Adam Putnam.

Though DeSantis on Tuesday lumped Trump’s comment in with criticism from major media outlets, Trump in his statement criticized Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post for being all-in on DeSantis. The New York Post ran a headline calling DeSantis “DeFuture.”

Trump is expected to announce his run for president in South Florida on Tuesday night.

Rumors about DeSantis’ presidential aspirations have swirled for months, and intensified on election night when he won a sweeping victory.