Trump thinks he’d beat DeSantis in 2024 GOP presidential primary

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Former President Donald Trump thinks he’d defeat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if they face each other at the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
• In an interview with The New Yorker, Trump said, “I think I’d win.”
• Trump once again indicated that he’s “very close to making a decision” about whether or not he’ll run in 2024.

Former President Donald Trump thinks he’d beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if they both seek the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 2024.

“I don’t know if Ron is running, and I don’t ask him,” Trump told The New Yorker in a story published on Monday. “It’s his prerogative. I think I would win.”

It’s not the first time the former president has said he’d beat the Florida governor. In an interview with Yahoo Finance in October, Trump said: “If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else.”

Trump also told the New Yorker that he doesn’t think DeSantis would have been elected governor without his endorsement.

“If I didn’t endorse him, he wouldn’t have won.”

Neither Trump nor DeSantis has officially announced they’d run for president.

Trump said in the interview that he’s “very close to making a decision” on whether or not he’ll run for reelection in 2024.

Last week, Rolling Stone reported that the former president is mulling announcing a 2024 reelection bid near Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, to show DeSantis “who the boss is.”

In a February straw poll held during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), 59% of attendees said they are in favor of Trump being the GOP nominee in 2024. DeSantis came in second with 208% support from the CPAC attendees.

In a poll taken earlier this month during the Western Conservative Summit, attendees were asked to vote for all of the candidates they’d approve for president. DeSantis received 71.01% approval from voters, while Trump received 67.68% approval.

Source: Newsweek