Trump calls Ron DeSantis a 'RINO' who 'loved vaccines' in escalation of attacks trends now

Now that Donald Trump has opened the floodgates against potential 2024 GOP challenger Ron DeSantis, he is going all-in, calling the wildly popular Florida governor a 'Republican in Name Only'.

In true Trump form, the ex-president came up with the nickname 'Ron DeSanctimonious' just weeks before announcing his White House bid in November – and started gradually getting more direct with his attacks.

Over the weekend Trump made a one-day, two-state swing to early primary contest states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. On his flight between the two east coast states, Trump told reporters on his plane that it would be very 'disloyal' if DeSantis ran against him in a 2024 GOP primary.

Now he is escalating the criticism as it appears increasingly likely that DeSantis could launch a White House bid.

DeSantis has been slow to respond to criticism from the former president, but did say Tuesday that voters in Florida have rendered their judgment on him by reelecting him for a second term.

In a series of posts and reposts to Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump got fantastical in his claims against DeSantis, claiming that the anti-lockdown governor 'loves vaccines' and 'closed' beaches.

'The real Ron is a RINO GLOBALIST, who closed quickly down Florida and even its beaches,' Trump wrote. 'Loved the Vaccines and wasted big money on 'Testing.' How quickly people forget!'

He was responding to a post on his social media website that claimed Trump would 'destroy' DeSantis in a primary.

Several other tweets were re-truthed by Trump, including one that said: 'DeSantis has never been America first, he is faking it trying to build his conservative credentials until he is elected president.'

Another from a separate account noted: 'He's a globalist dude. Don't be fooled.'

'He supports Ukraine and criticized Trump on his foreign policy,' the user continued. 'Trump kept everyone in check and didn't start any wars....well he did rage a war against the DS [deep state] but that's a good thing. Dems have nobody that can stop Trump so they are using Ron.'

Trump twice referred to the Florida governor as 'DeSanctimonious' in Tuesday tweets.

DeSantis brushed off criticism from Trump, claiming the 'verdict has been rendered' that his leadership, especially his Covid-19 response, is popular with the people who voted to reelect him.

Trump repeated his new nickname for DeSantis – 'DeSanctimonious' – in Truth Social posts on Monday, after saying Saturday it would be disloyal if the GOP governor made a bid for the White House in 2024.

The former president also claimed DeSantis' team is trying to rewrite history on the coronavirus response, and slammed him for keeping Florida's shutdown longer than other states. 

But the Florida governor was unruffled at a press conference on higher education Tuesday, saying, in response to Trump's comments: 'I roll out of bed, I have people attacking from all angles, It's been happening for many, many years.'

He added: 'If you look at the good thing about it though, is like if you take a crisis situation like Covid, the good thing about it is when you're an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions, you've got to steer that ship.

'And the good thing is that the people are able to render a judgment on that, whether they reelect you or not.

'So I would say, that verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida,' DeSantis concluded, referring to his massive reelection victory in the 2022 midterms.