Ron DeSantis Finally Gets Back at Donald Trump

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blasted Donald Trump for adding trillions to the national debt during his presidency and supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants.

DeSantis, who has usually shied away from retaliating against the former president’s series of attacks and insults, directly criticized the man who will now be his biggest challenger in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Speaking to RealClearPolitics on Wednesday following his 2024 announcement on Twitter Spaces, DeSantis was asked about the attacks Trump has leveled at him and whether his campaign will focus not only on why he should win, but if why Trump should not be re-elected.

Donald Trump introduces Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a homecoming campaign rally at the BB&T Center, on November 26, 2019, in Sunrise, Florida. DeSantis changed course and attacked Trump after the governor confirmed he would run for president in 2024. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“So [Trump’s] Draw a useful contrast with me now,” DeSantis said.

“He’s been running attacks, attacking me for voting against an omnibus spending bill that he signed when he was president. Really, I don’t think he should have signed those omnibus spending bills. He added almost $8 trillion in debt in four years. of time,” DeSantis said, referring to how the national debt has risen from $19.9 trillion to about $27.7 trillion during Trump’s time in office.

“I’m happy to be on the conservative side of that debate because I think our debt has increased too much,” he added.

DeSantis also noted that Trump attacked him for opposing Trump’s so-called amnesty bill in 2018, which would have given some 1.8 million undocumented immigrant children a path to U.S. citizenship in exchange for some hardline policies on immigration, like giving away billions of dollars. to build a wall on the southern border.

DeSantis said Trump tried to argue that those who voted against the bill, which was rejected by the House of Representatives in June 2018, voted against his border wall proposals.

Florida’s governor argued that the immigration bill was “little for that in lieu of a massive amnesty.”

“I am against amnesty. I thought it should be America First policy to oppose amnesty, and yet he endorsed and tried to ram through an amnesty,” DeSantis said.

“These are differences and I’m happy to talk about them,” he added. “He wants an omnibus. I oppose the omnibus. He wants amnesty. I oppose amnesty.”

While it appears that DeSantis has finally begun to fire back at Trump’s attacks, the governor did not mention the former president once in his 2024 online announcement. By comparison, Trump and his DeSantis team at his Twitter Space event, which has been plagued by technical difficulties and smooth issues.

“Wow! DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His entire campaign is going to be a disaster,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Is the DeSantis launch FATAL? Yes!”

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s team for comment via email.

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