Donors to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign are reportedly going to former President Donald Trump, although he does not want them, Trump claimed in a Truth Social post Tuesday, blasting his competitors.
“FoxNews should look at these numbers before doing their Fake News reports on Birdbrain,” Trump began, referring to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. “What a joke they are!”
Trump pointed out that dissatisfied DeSantis donors are flocking to him rather than Haley.
“The DeSanctimonious donors are coming to me (if I even want them, which I don’t!), not to, ‘I’ll never run against President Trump’ Haley, who was very average in every way,” Trump continued.
“Just like 2016 all over again. She’s not solving Israel, Iran, Ukraine, Inflation, or anything else!” he exclaimed.
Trump’s remark comes as a second-tier battle is brewing between DeSantis and Haley, the latter of whom is spending millions in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire in hopes of trouncing DeSantis. And while it is true that Trump is leading in every early primary and caucus state by double digits, Haley is also leading DeSantis in both South Carolina and New Hampshire and sits just three points behind him in Iowa, according to RealClearPolitics.
In other words, DeSantis’s endorsement from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has largely fallen flat and has not resulted in a boost in the polls for him.
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Further, DeSantis’s donor class is reportedly becoming more disgruntled with his lackluster performance. Republican megadonor Robert Bigelow, who at one point stood as the biggest individual donor supporting DeSantis presidential campaign, is now identifying himself as “pro-Trump.”
“I’m pro-Trump. Right now, I’m determined to remain on the sidelines for the time being to see how these prosecutions play out,” he said. “I have to be sure that he does not have a position where the prosecution has a path to send him to jail.”
But these overall reconsiderations are not necessarily new.
As Breitbart News reported in July:
Republican megadonor Ken Griffin is also reconsidering his support for DeSantis after previously claiming, “our country would be well-served by him as president,” months before DeSantis launched his campaign.
Griffin is one of several donors who supported DeSantis’s gubernatorial campaigns but are shying away from contributing to his presidential campaign. Former Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter — who donated, with his wife, over $2 million to DeSantis’s gubernatorial reelection campaign — is planning to support Trump’s third White House bid with a “meaningful” contribution, CNBC reported.
Billionaire Ronald Lauder, who donated more than $200,000 to DeSantis’s gubernatorial campaigns, is now considering throwing his financial support to Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Politico reported.
A September report from Politico observed that only 16 of 50 donors who contributed to DeSantis’s 2022 reelection campaign gave to the pro-DeSantis PAC Never Back Down, which has seen its own set of internal drama amid Haley’s rise in the polls. Most recently, the PAC’s chief executive, Chris Jankowski, resigned, citing differences that go “well beyond a difference of strategic opinion.”