AP Photo/Butch Dill
Former President Donald Trump issued an early Saturday morning missive at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and addressed a report stating that he’s been referring to him as “Meatball Ron.”
Trump has called DeSantis “Ron DeSanctimonious” on multiple occasions, but according to a New York Times report published Saturday, Trump has referred to him as “Meatball Ron” in private conversations in what is apparently a reference to the governor’s appearance, his Italian ancestry, or both.
According to the Times, the former president has also privately referred to DeSantis as “Shutdown Ron” because of restrictions he initiated early in the pandemic.
DeSantis’ refusal to rule himself out of the 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination has irked Trump, who believes the governor owes him because of his gubernatorial endorsement in 2018. Trump declared his candidacy in November, and DeSantis is widely believed to be a contender in 2024 and the main threat to a Trump nomination.
“I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” Trump stated on his social media platform Truth Social. “Even though FoxNews [sic] killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word ‘meatball’ as a moniker for Ron!”
It was the second time in four days Trump denied the Times‘ reporting about the nickname.
“All of the Fake News is reporting that I spend large amounts of my time coming up with a good ‘nickname’ for Ron DeSanctimonious, who is obviously going to give the presidential ‘thing’ a shot,” Trump wrote.
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