After Ron DeSantis suspended his bid for president on Sunday, former President Donald Trump’s estranged niece, Mary Trump, mocked the Florida Governor for ending his campaign.
DeSantis, once viewed by some political experts as the Republican with the greatest chance to outlast Trump in the primary, struggled to gain traction as Trump continued to dominate state and national polls.
In response to the end of DeSantis’ campaign, Mary Trump posted the following on her X, formerly Twitter, account:
“Ron DeSantis is what happens when you run against a man without running against him,” Mary Trump wrote.
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In a video announcing that he was suspending his campaign, DeSantis said he is endorsing Trump.
“Trump is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden, that is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear,” DeSantis said in the video.
Newsweek reached out to the DeSantis’ campaign via email on Sunday afternoon for comment.
In another post on X, Mary Trump mocked DeSantis by referring to her uncle’s go-to name for the Republican governor on the campaign trail, “DeSanctimonious,” adding that Trump now intends to retire it.
“Mr. Never Back Down officially backed down. Thus, Donald just said the name DeSanctimonious is ‘officially retired,'” Mary Trump wrote on X.
Mary Trump continued by taking aim at DeSantis’ suspended campaign, claiming that Never Back Down, a super-PAC backing DeSantis, “backed down” after “blowing” $150 million in funds.
“That’s $6,400 per vote. Then he immediately endorsed a man who mocked, defamed, and humiliated him. Disaster,” she wrote on X.
DeSantis’ departure comes after his second-place finish in the Iowa caucus on January 15. DeSantis finished with 21.3 percent of votes while Trump won with 51.3 percent, winning in all but one of the state’s 99 counties.
Earlier this month, NBC News reported that Republican presidential candidates and outside groups had spent more than $100 million on advertising ahead of the Iowa caucus.
Never Back Down has been the next-largest spender on the Iowa airwaves. Nikki Haley dropped $17.6 million on ads in 2023.
In addition, Fight Right and Good Fight, two other super PACs backing DeSantis, spent a combined $1.3 million in Iowa ads reserved in January, according to NBC News.
The DeSantis campaign also focused its resources in Iowa as NBC News reported the campaign spent $2.3 million on the Iowa airwaves in 2023, with another $400,000-plus scheduled for early January.
DeSantis is the second Republican presidential candidate to drop out of the running and endorse Trump after Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race just after the Iowa caucus.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.