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Internal polling from backers of Ron DeSantis show the Florida governor gaining ground against primary competitor Donald Trump in the first-in-the-nation primary contest state of Iowa. A new Never Back Down PAC survey shared with Axios has DeSantis closing the gap between frontrunner Trump by 14 percent since his presidential announcement. But when the other candidates were taken out of the equation and DeSantis and Trump were put in a head-to-head matchup, the pro-DeSantis PAC found the two frontrunners are effectively tied in Iowa – compared to the governor's 14-point deficit in mid-May. A new CNN survey conducted the day...

Florida’s Governor is unfazed by surveys showing him trailing Donald Trump in early 2024 GOP Primary states. Ron DeSantis told Brian Kilmeade he’s only just begun his campaign and that his campaign is in “really good shape” despite being down by double digits in pivotal early states. “I just started running. I mean, a lot of people didn’t know I was going to run or weren’t sure. So I think we’re actually in really good shape in the long run,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got a great plan and I think we’re going to be very strong in Iowa, New Hampshire,...

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida all but declared his presidential candidacy on Thursday afternoon, telling donors and supporters on a call that only three “credible” candidates were in the race and that only he would be able to win both the Republican primary and the general election. “You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,” Mr. DeSantis told donors on the call, organized by the super PAC supporting him, Never Back Down. “Biden, Trump and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and...

Former President Donald Trump ramped up his attacks against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday, releasing a campaign statement claiming the popular governor’s record in the Sunshine State is “one of misery and despair.” In a press release titled “The Real Ron DeSantis Playbook,” Trump provided a long list of reasons why Florida “continues to tumble into complete and total delinquency and destruction,” and argued that it has become one of the least affordable states to work, raise kids, and retire. INBOX: Trump releases a lengthy statement trashing DeSantis, claiming he's made "Florida…one of the least affordable states," "raised taxes…$1.5...

Join the 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump as he speaks at the Lee County GOP dinner in Fort Myers, Florida. President Trump is expected to begin at 7:00 PM ET with live coverage beginning at 5:00 PM ET.

As former President Donald Trump ramps up his 2024 presidential campaign, new polling reveals that while more than half of Americans believe he intentionally did something illegal after his indictment, many believe it was politically motivated. Trump was arraigned Tuesday in New York City on charges stemming from alleged 2016 hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, making him the first former president in American history to be criminally charged. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 48% of Americans think Trump should suspend his presidential campaign following the indictment, up 5 points from last week. The survey...

Is this the right time for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to run for president ? Potential candidates calculate odds, take polls, and count dollars to determine whether they should run. But it’s often not an easy decision; timing is the biggest conundrum in politics. DeSantis once seemed to have a glide path to the Republican Party's presidential nomination. His strong popularity among Republicans nationwide, together with his big reelection win and former President Donald Trump’s flubbing the midterm elections, put him in the driver’s seat. But now that the nomination is hitched to the wild uncertainties of indictments, some DeSantis...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has chosen a finance director for his prospective presidential campaign, two sources close to DeSantis said on Thursday. Lauren Lofstrom, who served as finance director for Texas Senator Ted Cruz during his 2016 presidential campaign, is joining DeSantis' political operation and has begun meeting with the governor's allies to discuss fundraising strategies, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Others who have joined DeSantis' political operation include Jason Johnson, who served as Cruz's chief strategist in 2016, the sources said.

Ron DeSantis may be missing his moment. A number of the Florida governor’s donors and allies are worried his recent stumbles suggest he may not be ready for a brutal fight against Donald Trump. Some feel DeSantis needs to accelerate his timeline to run for the GOP presidential nomination and begin directly confronting Trump if he's to have any chance of thwarting the former president’s momentum. Others believe DeSantis should sidestep Trump altogether and wait until 2028 to run. “They liked him — many of them might even support him,” the person who was at the event said of DeSantis....

Pillow tycoon turned conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell raged against Florida governor Ron DeSantis at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, calling the popular conservative a “Trojan Horse.” “Now I’ll tell you what Ron DeSantis — and he’s got money behind him — did he do anything for Disney? Remember that was the big thing, you’re gonna go after Disney,” began Lindell. “He did nothing, they got everything they wanted, everything — look it up!” “The media is covering up for Ron DeSantis. He is a Trojan Horse, he is the Trojan Horse,” shouted Lindell on the convention center floor....

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at evangelicals for not supporting his latest presidential campaign, saying it was a “sign of disloyalty” after he appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices and made their long-held dream of overturning Roe v. Wade possible. Trump, 76, told Real America’s Voice’s “The Water Cooler” Monday that the religious bloc of voters who were key to his 2016 victory have not yet come out to back his 2024 White House bid. “That’s a sign of disloyalty,” Trump told host David Brody. “There’s great disloyalty in the world of politics, and that’s a sign of disloyalty.”

The far-right streamer and Jan. 6 rioter known as “Baked Alaska” labeled former President Donald Trump a mere “nft salesman” after his teased “big announcement” flopped Thursday. Trump riled up much of the political world Wednesday when he took to his account on Truth Social to hype a “major announcement” that ended up being a $99.00 NFT trading card of himself dressed as a superhero. The announcement drew mockery, ridicule, and concern from conservatives. Baked Alaska is a White nationalist former MAGA streamer whose legal name is Anthime Joseph Gionet. He was among many who gave Trump’s latest money-making venture...

president of the United States, he used to brag to anyone who would listen about the important people who called him. (You know, the way a lot of serious adults do.) Rupert Murdoch calls me every day! He proudly produced the letters he’d exchanged with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to journalist Bob Woodward, telling him the letters were "soooo top secret," and asking Woodward (again, a JOURNALIST) (for The Washington Post!), "Don't say I gave them to you. OK?" This is a man who faked a Time magazine featuring him on the cover with the headline, “TRUMP IS...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has overtaken former President Trump in a hypothetical 2024 match-up for the GOP presidential nomination, according to a new Yahoo News-YouGov poll. The nationwide poll, released Thursday, shows DeSantis with a 5-point lead over Trump, with 47 percent of registered voters backing the governor compared to 42 percent for the former president. The latest results, taken in the first few days of December, are a stark turn from a mid-October poll that found Trump ahead by 9 percentage points, with 45 percent to DeSantis’s 36 percent. Trump announced his third run for the White House...

<p>Former President Donald Trump suggested the “termination” of the United States Constitution could be allowable in response to the bombshell report that the Democrat Party colluded with Twitter to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election.</p><p>The former president made his observation via his Truth Social account on Saturday following journalist Matt Taibbi’s thorough report on Twitter’s internal communications during the 2020 elections at the behest of newly-minted CEO Elon Musk.</p>

Most voters would rather see Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., as the GOP nominee in 2024 over former President Donald Trump, according to a new poll that also found the majority of Democrats do not think President Biden should seek re-election next cycle. A Marquette Law School poll revealed that in a hypothetical 2024 matchup between DeSantis and Biden, the two candidates were tied among registered voters, both receiving 42% support. About 11% said they would choose a different candidate. The results reflect a major increase in support for DeSantis compared to a January Marquette poll where he received only 34%...

Former President Donald Trump again rejected the result of Arizona’s gubernatorial election Monday, calling for Republican Kari Lake to be declared the winner due to a supposed “criminal voting operation.” “Massive numbers of ‘BROKEN’ voting machines in Republican Districts on Election Day. Mechanics sent in to ‘FIX’ them made them worse,” Trump, 76, said in a Truth Social post without offering evidence. “Kari had to be taken to a Democrat area, which was working perfectly, to vote. Her opponent ran the Election.” Trump added it was “SO OBVIOUS” that Lake, 53, should not have lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s...

Earlier this month, former President Trump said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should be impeached if he backs a plan for the debt ceiling to be eliminated over fears that House Republicans could cause the U.S. to default on the nation’s credit. When asked by conservative radio host John Fredericks about chatter surrounding the possibility of Congress effectively eliminating the debt limit, the former president lambasted the idea. On Sunday, following the Democrat’s win and maintaining Senate control, Trump went on the attack. “It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault. Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates instead of backing Blake...

For Donald Trump, politics and entertainment are intertwined and often synonymous. His remarkable success at both makes his latest missteps especially puzzling because Trump is committing the cardinal sin of both: He’s become boring. The ultimate shock jock is now predictable. Wind him up and watch him throw a garbage can full of insults at anyone who won’t kiss the ring. Ho-hum. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are getting the Trump treatment now. Both are rising Republican stars, so naturally the former president trashes and demeans them. Can’t be competition for top dog. Long gone is...

Former President Trump on Tuesday complained that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was not gracious enough to him for backing his first gubernatorial bid, the latest sign of a growing rift between the two men ahead of a possible 2024 presidential primary showdown. “Ron is a person, I’ve always had a decent relationship with him, but when I endorsed him, he was gone,” Trump told NewsNation in an interview from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. (NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which purchased The Hill in 2021.)