Kari Lake says that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has no chance of beating former President Donald Trump because he can’t even defeat “Donald Duck.”
Lake, a staunch Trump ally and the failed Republican candidate in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, took a swipe at the Florida governor’s presidential ambitions and his continuing war with Disney during an interview with Newsmax host Eric Bolling on Tuesday.
DeSantis has increasingly been under fire from Trump and his allies as his expected entry into the 2024 GOP presidential primary race approaches. He will announce his candidacy during a Twitter interview with CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday night, according to Reuters.
DeSantis has also been fighting a seemingly losing battle against Disney since the company first criticized his “Don’t Say Gay” bill last year. Trump has mocked DeSantis for being “outplayed, outsmarted, and embarrassed by Mickey Mouse.”
Mario Tama; Mauricio Santana; MAYA ALLERUZZO/POOL/AFP
During her Newsmax interview on Tuesday, Lake said that the governor’s war on Disney and so-called “woke” politics was “a worthy cause” but his “half-a****” approach indicates that he does not have what it takes to beat Trump.
“When you pick a fight with Disney, you need to play to win,” Lake said. “And so far, Governor DeSantis has been outworked and outmaneuvered by Disney … You know, if you can’t beat Donald Duck, how are you going to beat Donald Trump?”
“I think that’s the question we have to ask when it comes to Governor DeSantis,” she added. “I think he should stay in Florida … I’d rather see President Trump, who’s a deal-maker, who can make things happen, take on woke corporations.”
Newsweek has reached out via email to the office of DeSantis for comment.
Prior to Trump’s 2024 campaign announcement in November, Lake frequently praised DeSantis. She said that the governor was “fantastic” during a Turning Point USA conference in the summer, asserting that he rivaled Trump in “BDE”—which she jokingly said stood for “Big DeSantis Energy.”
Trump started lashing out at DeSantis as speculation about his candidacy mounted, far in advance of this week’s expected campaign announcement. He has lavished the governor with nicknames like “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “Meatball Ron.”
While polls indicated that a hypothetical Trump-DeSantis Republican primary race would have been close earlier this year, the former president has since pulled away and emerged as the clear-cut GOP frontrunner. DeSantis officially becoming a candidate could give him a badly needed post-announcement polling bump.
In comments to Reuters, an unnamed Trump adviser took shots at the governor and his expected manner of announcing his candidacy, saying that “announcing on Twitter is perfect” for DeSantis because “he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him any questions.”
Musk, who has often been criticized for pushing conservative views on Twitter since purchasing the platform while promising political neutrality, reportedly insisted that he is not endorsing “any particular candidate” but is hosting the DeSantis announcement in the interest of “Twitter being somewhat of a town square.”