Trump team trolls Ron DeSantis launch

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WASHINGTON No one liked Florida Gov.’s campaign launch better. Ron DeSantis than former President Donald Trump.

“Wow. The DeSanctus TWITTER launch was a DISASTER!” Trump wrote on the Truth Social media platform. “His entire campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!”

Schadenfreude, the German word for delight in the failure of others, may understate the joy Trump and his team felt as DeSantis’ glitch-ridden Twitter audio-chat with billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk failed to take off. for about 20 minutes.

As hundreds of thousands of listeners logged off, Trump’s allies shared images to represent their excitement: a glass of wine and an emoji of them laughing to tears. Trump quickly posted a video on Truth Social that showed contrasting images of his loud campaign announcement last year and a screen on Twitter showing DeSantis discussing “Preparing to launch.”

But Trump advisers also used the moment to argue that the foul-up reflects badly on DeSantis and his operation as a whole.

“Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. “And that’s the only candidate.”

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the pro-Trump political committee Make America Great Again Inc., said in a statement that the episode showed that Trump is the right person to win the nomination and the presidency.

“Ron DeSantis’ false campaign announcement is another example of why he’s not ready for the job,” Leavitt said. “The stakes are too high, and the fight to save America is too critical to gamble with a first-timer who is clearly not ready for prime time.”

In the end, DeSantis and Musk were able to stream their conversation, moderated by Musk pal and DeSantis fan David Sacks, on Twitter. DeSantis began by delivering a version of his stump speech that was new to many Americans but familiar to his most ardent supporters.

His team touted technological issues as a sign of victory, with one senior campaign official saying “DeSantis broke the Internet.”

The trouble with the launch comes on the heels of months of DeSantis watching his poll numbers slide. Trump now continues to claim more than half of Republican primary voters in national polls, and DeSantis’ average is closer to 21 percent, according to Real Clear Politics.

DeSantis will meet with fundraisers and donors this week in Miami as part of his campaign launch.

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