ORLANDO — The rivalry between Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump came to Florida Saturday, where the Republican presidential primary opponents tried to position themselves as the dominant GOP figure in a state both call home.
Dueling video backdrops during their speeches at a Florida GOP event in Orlando declared “Florida is DeSantis Country” and “Florida is Trump Country.”
Both received rapturous receptions from the crowd of GOP activists.
Before either man took the stage, though, it was clear there was considerable support for Trump among the crowd. A pair of GOP presidential candidates ‒ Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie ‒ who are critical of Trump were booed during their remarks.
DeSantis has sharpened his attacks against Trump on the campaign trail, but steered clear of directly criticizing him on stage Saturday during a 30 minute speech at the Florida Freedom Summit, which attracted most of the GOP presidential candidates.
Trump, meanwhile, bragged that he was leading in the state by a wide margin and put on a display of strength, inviting a group of lawmakers who recently flipped their endorsements from DeSantis onto the stage with him.
Trump directly criticized DeSantis at multiple points in his speech, which lasted more than an hour, repeatedly calling him "Ron DeSanctimonious" and "Ron DeSanctus." He again complained that DeSantis is disloyal for running against him after asking for his endorsement during his first campaign for governor with "tears flowing from his eyes," which prompted laughter from the crowd.
After DeSantis decided to run for president, "we hit him hard and now he's like a wounded falling bird from the sky," Trump said.
DeSantis was more veiled with his criticism, never mentioning Trump by name.
Immediately after walking out to roaring applause, DeSantis told the audience he didn't need to use teleprompters, directing the comments at President Joe Biden.
"We have a president, we don't even know who the president is, it's whoever's loading the teleprompter," he said.
"You gotta speak from the heart!" he said. "It's not about reading off a teleprompter."
The remarks doubled as a veiled jab at Trump. DeSantis has accused Trump of being "wedded to the teleprompter" and stumbling when he goes off script. DeSantis also said Republicans have "blown winnable elections" over the last three cycles and argued the GOP brand is "toxic" outside Florida, alluding to Trump's poor track record leading the party in recent elections.
Mostly, though, DeSantis stuck to his standard stump speech touting his record in Florida and ignored Trump.
“Florida’s the model!” DeSantis declared. “We know how to get it done.”
Trump, meanwhile, often directed his remarks at Biden, repeatedly mocking him. He also claimed that his legal woes are political persecution and repeated unfounded claims about the 2020 election.
"The whole election was a lie!" Trump said.
The back and forth between DeSantis and Trump has taken a crude turn lately, with the DeSantis campaign accusing Trump of not having the "balls" to debate him while Trump’s supporters have mocked DeSantis over questions about whether he is wearing lifts in his boots.
Earlier in the day, while signing paperwork to be on the ballot in Florida in a private ceremony with prominent supporters and the media, DeSantis responded to a question about those low-brow politics, saying: “I just responded to their nonsense.”
“I’m done with all the trivialities,” he added. “It’s not something that we need to be concerned about. We need to be concerned about looking forward. We need to be concerned about winning and leading.”
DeSantis' sparing allusions to Trump Saturday were in keeping with the mood of the gathering, which had plenty of MAGA energy. The crowd reacted harshly when Hutchinson made criticism of Trump a focus of his morning remarks, with the candidate suggesting there is "a significant likelihood that Donald Trump will be found guilty by a jury on a felony offense next year."
"As a party we must support the rule of law, we can not win as a country without integrity... " Hutchinson said. "And while some will ignore the destructive behavior of the former president, I assure you we ignore it at our peril. The next generation will not look favorably..."
Hutchinson's comments were drowned out by boos. Somebody shouted "go home!"
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also was booed. An ardent Trump critic, Christie told the crowd "your anger against the truth is reprehensible."
The crowd's reaction to Christie and Hutchinson highlighted the tension within the GOP as the presidential primary enters a critical phase, with two months to go before voting begins in Iowa. Trump is dominating that field, and his opponents, including DeSantis, have struggled to find a way to take him on without angering the GOP base.
Trump quickly turned the Orlando gathering into a power play against DeSantis on his home turf, with five lawmakers who previously endorsed DeSantis flipping their endorsements to Trump.
Florida has been DeSantis' base of support, providing much of his fundraising and campaign talking points as he touts his conservative governing record in the state. Many GOP members of the Florida Legislature have endorsed DeSantis.
Yet DeSantis has struggled to turn his popularity with Florida Republicans – he won reelection by nearly 20 percentage points – into a national campaign.
Trump is well ahead in national polls, and in key early states. Polls also have shown him ahead in Florida, although there haven't been any recent surveys, and he is keen to show DeSantis he is the dominant GOP figure in the state, which could further deflate the governor's struggling campaign.
Last month Florida state Rep. Randy Fine, a prominent Jewish Republican, flipped his endorsement from DeSantis to Trump, saying the governor hasn't come out strong enough against antisemitism.
Then last week Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott endorsed Trump over DeSantis, another example of DeSantis being spurned by a key figure at home, although the two have long had a strained relationship.
The Trump campaign unveiled seven more Florida endorsements on Saturday in a move first reported by The Messenger. The lawmakers flipping from DeSantis to Trump are state Sen. Debbie Mayfield and state Representatives Jessica Baker, Webster Barnaby, Alina Garcia and Kevin Steele. State Representatives Mike Beltran and David Borrero also endorsed Trump Saturday.
Trump invited the lawmakers to join him on stage at the start of his speech Saturday, calling them "great people."
“I think there are many legislators who never wanted to be behind the governor but they made the calculation he signs their bills and appropriations," Fine told the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida.
DeSantis predicted Saturday that he will carry Florida when the state's March primary rolls around, and dismissed the endorsement flips as politicians doing "what they're going to do."
“This happens in these things,” he said. “We’ve had flips the other way in other states. It's a dynamic thing."
Fine said he would've switched his endorsement to Trump even if he was losing, because he thinks Trump has been stronger in protecting the Jewish people, but he believes Trump will win by a large margin and has more support than DeSantis in Florida.
"The grassroots seem to be with Trump," he said. "And it’s not that they’re overwhelmingly anti-DeSantis, it’s you gotta choose."
Bob White, the chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida, also believes Trump is stronger in Florida than DeSantis with GOP voters. White is a Trump supporter and most of the Republicans he interacts with are too.
"I think he's significantly behind Trump" in Florida, White said of DeSantis. "The Trump base is so loyal to him and so committed to him. They're not budging."
Regarding the 91 felony charges against Trump in four separate legal cases, White believes the former president is being unjustly persecuted.
"I haven't seen a smoking gun yet," he said.
White was manning a Republican Liberty Caucus booth outside the ballroom where GOP figures spoke. Across from White's booth, a vendor sold political merchandise, most of it Trump branded.
The booth included MAGA hats, a shirt with Trump's mug shot from his indictment in Georgia in case involving his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and another shirt proclaiming Trump "NOT GUILTY."
There was a smaller amount of DeSantis merchandise, including bejeweled hats reading "DeSantis Girl."
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