A new Fox News poll has put former President Donald Trump 30 points ahead of his biggest possible opponent, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Polling 1,007 registered voters nationwide between March 24-27 with +/- 3 percentage points, the Fox News Poll showed that Trump has doubled his lead in the Republican primary since February, 54 percent to 24 percent. In February, Trump just had a 15-point lead, 43 percent to 28 percent. In third place stands former Vice President Mike Pence at just six percent, while Liz Cheney and Nikki Haley remain tied with three percent each.
It should be noted that DeSantis has yet to announce his candidacy for president.
“Trump made gains among almost every key demographic except for White men with a college degree, where DeSantis is up by 12 points,” according to Fox News. “Among the subgroup of voters who backed Trump in the 2020 general election, 60% support him in the GOP primary, while 25 percent go for DeSantis and 5 percent for Pence.”
Primary voters did, however, back DeSantis as their second choice. Republican pollster Daron Shaw said the poll shows that rumors over Trump’s indictment from Alvin Bragg have helped him immensely.
“The rumor that Trump is going to be indicted by the district attorney in Manhattan has helped him quite a bit among Republican primary voters,” said Shaw. “They view the case as politically motivated and it reanimates feelings that Trump is still fighting forces they see as corrupt and out of control.”
A subtle feud has been brewing between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis in the past two weeks. Most recently, Trump said that the popular Florida governor would be working in a pizza parlor without his 2018 endorsement.
“I said, ‘You write out what you’d like and let me see it,’” Trump said. “He wrote it out. I thought it was terrible. I changed it, made it great, and I gave him a great endorsement. From the moment I pressed that button, he blew the guy away. The race was over.”
“There was no way Ron was going to beat Gillum,” added Trump. “So he got the nomination. But there was no way because this guy was going to be the future of the Democrat Party. And I said, ‘Ron, you can beat this guy. Let’s go.’”
Watch: Donald Trump comments on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis