Trump Accuses DeSantis Of What?

Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Former President Trump blasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for his payments to the conservative satire site The Babylon Bee. This is the latest in a growing number of attacks against DeSantis who is widely considered to be the biggest rival Trump might potentially have to fight for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Trump took to his Social Media network Truth Social, to ask why “Ron DeSanctimonious” had paid the Babylon Bee, $5,000 each month, totaling $21,500 so far, “if he’s not running for President?” The post also included a number of screenshots from the satire site.

Trump continued to claim that the reason DeSantis was making the payments was that his poll numbers were getting worse, because of his stance on Social Security and Medicate. He added that it would not make sense for him to be paying that much on the satire site if he was only running for Governor.

The screenshot, which does not show the source of the date of the payments, shows four separate $5,000 payments and one $1,500 payment to The Babylon Bee.

Florida campaign finance records also show DeSantis’s campaign committee making three $5,000 payments and one $1,500 payment to The Babylon Bee for “advertising” and other “email services’ ‘ during DeSantis’ 2022 gubernatorial campaign.

In recent months Trump, who has already launched his presidential campaign for 2024 has been attacking DeSantis, who is widely considered to be his biggest competition for the GOP presidential nomination. DeSantis has not yet announced his intentions for the 2024 race, but he is expected to make an announcement following the end of the state’s legislative session in May.