ROCHESTER, NH, Jan 22, (AP): Donald Trump set aside months of criticism and mockery of Ron DeSantis on Sunday night, celebrating his onetime Republican rival as his newest supporter after the Florida governor ended his presidential campaign and endorsed the former president.
For Trump, it's become a familiar ritual to welcome the backing of someone who tried to take him on. Nonetheless, it was notable at Sunday's rally in New Hampshire to see Trump praise DeSantis without calling him "DeSantimonious” or "DeSanctus,” putting an end to perhaps the most bitter rivalry of Republicans' 2024 campaign.
"I just want to thank Ron and congratulate him on doing a very good job,” Trump said at the outset of his remarks. "He was very gracious, and he endorsed me. I appreciate that, and I also look forward to working with Ron.” Trump described DeSantis as "a really terrific person.”
Earlier in the day, DeSantis said via video that he would be ending his campaign two days before New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation GOP primary. But, Trump's glee Sunday night aside, it wasn't the warmest of endorsements.
"It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said, offering matter-of-fact analysis through a forced smile, without adding plaudits for Trump.
"I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge," he continued, before adding a dig at the remaining contender, Nikki Haley. DeSantis described the former UN ambassador and onetime South Carolina governor as a stand-in for "the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism.”
Seemingly unbothered by DeSantis' approach, Trump struck a tone of camaraderie as fellow political combatants. "I will tell you it's not easy,” Trump said Sunday night in Rochester. "They think it's easy doing this stuff, right? It's not easy.”
Then Trump quickly moved on to his typical rally speech, mixing freewheeling attacks on President Joe Biden, the political media, "the deep state” and "warmongers” in Washington, and the criminal justice that has indicted him four times, with 91 felony charges pending in multiple trials.