Trump says he’d ‘beat’ DeSantis in potential 2024 primary

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Former President Donald Trump says he’d beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a GOP presidential primary, according to a recent interview.
• Trump told Yahoo Finance, “If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else.”
• The former president said, “most people would drop out, I think [DeSantis] would drop out.”

Former President Trump in a new interview said he would beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) if the two Republicans faced each other in a 2024 primary, but noted that he does not believe the governor will run against him.

“If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else,” Trump said during an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, set to be released on Monday.

However, the former president said he does not think he will face DeSantis in 2024, adding that “I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.”

Trump’s comments come as speculation is swirling regarding who will lead the GOP ticket in 2024, when Republicans seek to take back the White House.

A straw poll for the 2024 GOP presidential nominee taken at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in July gave DeSantis high marks. 

When asked who attendees would vote for in the Republican primary if it were held that day, 70 percent of respondents said Trump. DeSantis came in second with 21 percent of the vote.

When surveying respondents without Trump as an option, however, DeSantis topped the poll at 68 percent.

DeSantis, an ardent Trump supporter, is up for reelection in 2022. He told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Thursday that he will run for governor again next year and wasn’t considering a 2024 campaign.

He also said he is “not considering anything beyond doing my job.”

Trump has still not announced if he plans to wage another run for the White House in 2024, though he has been publicly flirting with the idea since losing the last election. 

Trump told Hannity in July during an interview that he has made a decision about his plans for 2024. Last month, the former president said it was an “easy question” whether he will run again.

In August a Quinnipiac University poll found that 60 percent of adults nationwide felt that it would be bad for the country if Trump were to run for president in 2024.

Source: The Hill