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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told supporters in a phone call Wednesday that he doesn’t want to be Donald J. Trump’s vice president, saying Trump will consider “identity politics” when choosing the next president. He suggested that it would be a “mistake” to do so. He was a running mate, leaving the door wide open for a 2028 presidential run.
DeSantis said he has “not ruled out anything” about running for president in 2028 and outlined plans to remain involved in politics beyond Florida.
In a more than 30-minute conference call to thank supporters who volunteered to serve as presidential delegates, the governor was unusually candid about his 2024 campaign failures, a month after he withdrew from the race. It was evaluated as follows. He also silenced conservative news outlets, claiming they supported the former president over him.
He also cited “all the baggage that President Trump is carrying” as a concern for Republicans heading into the fall, but said President Biden “is going to be the gift that keeps on giving.”
Although he stated that he had no regrets about running for the party’s presidential nomination, he was dissatisfied with the fact that “the campaign ended up being an incumbent election.”
“The trajectory of the campaign was that he kept getting indicted and he got more support out of sympathy for that,” DeSantis said of Trump at one point.
In separate remarks, DeSantis claimed, “If there were really only eight or 10 Republicans who, unlike Trump, have clearly never been president, we would have gotten away with it.”
The New York Times obtained a recording of the call, which was first reported by the New York Post.
At one point, DeSantis undermined Trump’s record as president, accusing him of failing to fulfill many campaign promises.
““I was in Congress for the first two years of Trump’s presidency,” DeSantis said. “So we didn’t actually do what we said we were going to do. We didn’t see any major immigration, border, or other types of legislation. We didn’t see anything about repealing and replacing Obamacare. . It didn’t think anything about curbing bureaucracy. I mean, it was pretty mundane.”
DeSantis complained about the role of right-wing media in the presidential primary, saying there was “no accountability for what President Trump has said.” He added that he is concerned that he will not be able to keep Trump on his agenda if he returns to the White House.
“If you criticize President Trump, their business model won’t work,” DeSantis said of conservative news organizations, calling his criticism “just an observation.”
“He said at one point you could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes,” DeSantis continued, referring to Trump. “Well, I guess he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, but the conservative media wouldn’t even report on it.”
Mr. DeSantis also made it clear that he has no interest in becoming Mr. Trump’s running mate.
“People were referring to me, but I’m not. I don’t do that,” he said, outlining that “Donald Trump’s standards” would be different from his standards.
“I’ve heard that they’re focusing more on identity politics. I think that’s a mistake. I think they should just focus on who’s the best person for the job,” DeSantis said. .
One supporter asked DeSantis if he feared being alienated by Trump.
Mr. DeSantis called for caution with such reports, but appeared to be referring to Mr. Trump’s long-standing rift with Susie Wiles, one of Mr. Trump’s top aides who once worked for Mr. DeSantis.
“I think there are people in his inner circle who were in our orbit a few years ago that we fired,” he said. “And I think part of it is they just have an ax to grind.”
Trump’s top adviser, Chris Lacivita, called DeSantis a “sad little man.” In the post of X After the call recording surfaced.
DeSantis sounded like a politician still looking ahead to his political future, talking about his call for term limits and other national concerns. “I want to help at the state level across the country,” he said.
The governor recalled that voters often told him that they supported Trump this year and hoped to support him in the future.
“I didn’t want to hear this,” he said. “But, I mean, I heard from a lot of people on the ground in these early states that they thought I was very good and would be a very great president. But they wanted to give Trump another shot. So all they did was support me for 28 years.”
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