Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign in Iowa by subtly attacking his biggest challenger in the GOP primary, Donald Trump.
DeSantis, who for months avoided retaliating against the former president’s string of attacks and insults against him, hit back with several veiled jabs at Trump during a speech for the launch of his official White House campaign at Eternity Church in Clive, just outside of Des Moines, on Tuesday.
The event was the start of a four-day tour through 12 cities in the early primary caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina for DeSantis, who confirmed he is running for president in a May 24 Twitter Space announcement which was beset with technical issues.
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As well as praising his own policies and success in Florida, DeSantis appeared to attack Trump’s leadership style and accomplishments while in office.
“At the end of the day, leadership is not about entertainment,” DeSantis told the crowd. “It’s not about building a brand, it’s not about virtue signaling.
“It is about results, and in Florida, we didn’t lead with merely words, we followed up our words with deeds, and we have produced a record of accomplishment that we would put up against anybody in this country.”
DeSantis also spoke about the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and the “millions of illegal aliens have poured into this country including criminal aliens, and even individuals on the terrorist watch list,” while claiming he will be the presidential candidate who can control and stop illegal immigration at the border.
“I’ve been listening to these politicians talk about securing the border for years and years and years,” DeSantis said in another apparent subtle dig at Trump. “I can tell you, if I’m president, this will finally be the time where we bring this issue to a conclusion.”
During his speech, DeSantis also took several swipes at his potential Democratic challenger in 2024, Joe Biden, including suggesting the president’s recent debt ceiling deal will result in the country “careening towards bankruptcy.”
“This is greenlighting $4 trillion in new debt in less than two years. It took us almost 200 years to get to $4 trillion in debt in the first place. It locks in inflated COVID-era levels of spending, and it keeps 98 percent of the 87,000 new IRS agents that Joe Biden instituted,” DeSantis added.
The Florida governor’s 87,000 figure was a reference to the Republican claim, dismissed by Democrats and fact checkers, that funding which was introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act last year will be used to hire tens of thousands of new IRS agents to audit low- and middle-income families.
DeSantis also borrowed a line of attack from Trump that the former president used to mock Biden’s campaign efforts during the 2020 election in his speech in Iowa.
“It is great to be back. And it’s great for me to report that our great American comeback starts by sending Joe Biden back to his basement in Delaware,” DeSantis said.
“I mean, he’s spent so much of his time as president on vacation, we might as well make it permanent.”
Polls have frequently suggested that Trump is the overwhelming favorite to clinch the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 ahead of DeSantis.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s national average tracker, Trump is ahead in the GOP primary with 54.3 percent, with DeSantis a distant second with 20.7 percent.
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s office and the White House for comment via email.