Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the Republican presidential primary and immediately endorsed former President Donald Trump.
Trump, in turn, graciously accepted the endorsement.
And that included the official retirement of Trump’s longtime derogatory nickname for the second-term Florida governor.
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On Sunday, a reporter asked Trump about DeSantis during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.
Trump responded: “You said, ‘Will I be using the name Ron DeSanctimonious?’”
“That name is officially retired,” Trump added.
Trump first began ripping DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious” in mid-November 2022, right after the midterm elections.
Republicans woefully underperformed, barely eking out a majority, and many who had higher hopes for the party blamed Trump.
DeSantis was re-elected that month in a 20-point landslide over Democrat Charlie Crist.
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At the time, reporters were first beginning to prod DeSantis about a possible presidential bid, just as Trump was nearing the time to announce his.
Trump was not pleased with DeSantis’ response, and took aim at the governor he once campaigned for on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“And now Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!” Trump said in part of a lengthy post.
“The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”
Trump claimed NewsCorp and its outlets, including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post were “all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious,” who, Trump added, was “an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great public relations.”
That day, Trump also claimed he “fixed” DeSantis’ first campaign after it “had completely fallen apart.” DeSantis, he added, approached him with “low approval, bad polls, and no money.”
Read: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Ends Presidential Bid Ahead Of New Hampshire, Endorses Trump
“I was all in for Ron, and he beat [Democratic candidate Andrew] Gillum, but after the race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the US Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his election from being stolen,” Trump wrote.
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