\n<\/p>\n
Last month, Donald Trump<\/strong> said<\/a> that if Ron DeSantis<\/strong> ends up jumping into the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, he\u2019ll \u201chandle\u201d the Florida governor \u201cthe way I handle things.\u201d Obviously, this did not mean that he\u2019ll simply run a better campaign and\/or hire a therapist to teach him breathing exercises and think calming thoughts. Rather, it was clearly a pointed reference to the way the ex-president has \u201chandled\u201d his real and perceived competition in the past, i.e., through threats, intimidation, and insults. And he\u2019s wasted no time doing just that.<\/p>\n In an interview on Thursday, Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt<\/strong> that he was single-handedly responsible for getting DeSantis elected as governor in 2018. While this is a claim Trump has made before<\/a>, this time he added a bit more flourish to the story. \u201cRon DeSantis got elected because of me,\u201d he told Hewitt. \u201cYou remember, he had nothing, he was dead, he was leaving the race, he came over and he begged me,\u00a0begged<\/em> me, for an endorsement. He was getting ready to drop out\u2026. He said, \u2018If you endorse me, I\u2019ll win,\u2019 and there were tears coming down from his eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n He later added<\/a> that once he rubber-stamped DeSantis\u2019s campaign, \u201ceverything collapsed\u201d for primary opponent Adam Putnam,<\/strong> and that the endorsement got DeSantis \u201cpast the crackhead [Andrew Gillum<\/strong>], who was the hottest person in the Democratic Party at the time,\u201d in the general election.<\/p>\n Is the story of DeSantis crying while begging for Trump\u2019s approval actually true? On the one hand, this sounds a lot like Trump\u2019s famous \u201csir<\/a>\u201d stories, which are crafted to make him look good but tend not to have a basis in reality. (It also sounds tonally similar to his insults about people doing things \u201clike a dog<\/a>.\u201d In fact, we\u2019re honestly surprised he hasn\u2019t yet claimed DeSantis begged him \u201clike a dog,\u201d but perhaps that\u2019s coming.) On the other, DeSantis was once such a huge fan of Trump that he made an entire, hugely embarrassing campaign video about his love for the guy.<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s hard to say.<\/p>\n In related news, during the same interview with Hewitt, Trump refused<\/a> to say if he would support the next Republican presidential nominee regardless of who that person is. \u201cIt would have to depend on who the nominee was,\u201d he said, which is not dissimilar to the answer he gave a few years ago when asked if he\u2019d accept the outcome of the 2020 election<\/a> regardless of the winner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n