(USNewsMag.com) – Rumors of a team-up abound after former President Donald Trump met with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his former rival for the Republican nomination, to discuss fundraising for the former president’s 2024 White House bid.
On Sunday, April 28th, Trump and DeSantis had a meet in Miami, signaling the two may be ready to set aside their differences and political feud from the GOP primary in order to unify the party under one banner in the upcoming general election where the former president will almost surely face a rematch with President Joe Biden. The meeting was arranged by Steve Witkoff, a real estate broker in the Sunshine State and a friend of both men. A Trump campaign official told reporters that the meeting happened “at the request” of DeSantis.
In early April, DeSantis went on a golfing, cigar-smoking retreat in Hollywood with many of his most loyal campaign donors, whom the Florida governor told he would be helping the Trump campaign with fundraising. DeSantis proved to be quite good at fundraising while he ran against Trump in the primaries, raising over $200 million and parlaying much of it into a political action committee.
Before dropping out of the race at the end of January, DeSantis was the top contender for the Republican nomination and held the second-place spot throughout the primary competition before bowing out, after which Nikki Haley took the spot until her eventual defeat. When he bowed out after the Iowa caucus, DeSantis immediately threw his lot in with Trump, which pleased his most hardline Republican voters while splitting a few other supporters off who had lost their taste for the former president.
Roy Bailey, a former DeSantis presidential campaign finance chair, called the move a “great development” that “makes perfect sense” for the former president, the Florida governor, and the GOP. He said it was now more important for Republicans to set aside differences and “row in the same direction.”
The Trump vs DeSantis rivalry was heated, and the Florida governor heavily criticized many of Trump’s policy positions, from the 2020 pandemic lockdowns to abortion. Trump also took several nasty shots at DeSantis throughout the primary campaign trail. The two candidates uniting lends more power to both, and some even speculate DeSantis could be tapped as a running mate.
Copyright 2024, USNewsMag.com
