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Billionaire liberal donor George Soros said Thursday he believes 2024 could turn into a ‘Democratic landslide’ if Ron DeSantis wins the presidential nomination and Donald Trump runs as a third-party candidate.
‘My hope for 2024 is that Trump and Gov. DeSantis of Florida will slug it out for the Republican nomination,’ Soros said at the Munich Security Conference.
The Hungarian-American philanthropist showered praise on DeSantis’ political acumen and called former President Trump ‘pitiful.’
‘Trump has turned into a pitiful figure, continually bemoaning his loss in 2020. Big Republican donors are abandoning him in droves,’ Soros said.
DeSantis, on the other hand, is ‘shrewd, ruthless and ambitious,’ Soros said. He predicted the Florida governor would win the nomination.
‘This could induce Trump, whose narcissism has turned into a disease, to run as a third-party candidate. That would lead to a Democratic landslide and force the Republican Party to reform itself,’ he went on. ‘But perhaps, I may be just a little bit biased.’
Billionaire liberal donor George Soros said Thursday he believes 2024 could turn into a ‘Democratic landslide’ if Ron DeSantis wins the presidential nomination and Donald Trump runs as a third-party candidate
‘My hope for 2024 is that Trump and Gov. DeSantis of Florida will slug it out for the Republican nomination,’ Soros said at the Munich Security Conference
Trump and DeSantis attend a political rally together in 2019
Soros has donated more than $32 billion through his group Open Society Foundations, leaving him with a net worth around $6.7 billion. He is one of the Democratic Party’s most generous donors, having poured around $125 million into the 2022 midterms.
Trump’s United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is his only formal opponent so far, though potential rivals like Sen. Tim Scott have begun scheduling speeches in early primary states like South Carolina and Iowa, suggesting they are flirting with the idea of a run.
DeSantis is believed to be prepping his own campaign for launch in the spring or early summer, once the Florida legislative session wraps.
Polling has consistently showed Trump and DeSantis at the top of the ticket.
A Quinnipiac poll Thursday put Trump at 42 percent and DeSantis 36 percent, with Haley at 5 percent. Vice President Mike Pence and Sec. of State Mike Pompeo polled at 4 percent.
Trump has rolled out some new insults for the governor and former congressman he once launched onto the national stage, privately calling him ‘Meatball Ron’ to mock his appearance and ‘Shutdown Ron’ in a reference to his early Covid-19 policies, according to a New York Times report.
The Times reported Trump staff are pouring over DeSantis’s record on Covid-19 shutdowns to blast the governor.
DeSantis had seen his star rise during the pandemic as a vocal opponent to the Biden administration’s public health policies, from vaccinations to remote learning.
He’s fast becoming a viable alternative for Republican voters who appreciated Trump’s policies but found the man himself to be too bombastic and divisive.
But like most governors, DeSantis did oversee early pandemic restrictions when COVID-19 became a serious issue in the US in March 2020. He made restrictions even stiffer in Broward and Palm Beach counties, shutting down their beaches – which Trump has been quick to bring up in recent weeks.
Trump told CNN on his plane last month that DeSantis was trying to ‘rewrite history’ on his governing during the pandemic.
And in addition to his reportedly snide nicknames thrown out behind closed doors, Trump has ramped up his trademark colorful attacks against the governors in public as well.
He’s knocked him as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ on multiple occasions in recent weeks, a nickname Trump debuted just before the midterm election races which earned him criticism from fellow Republicans for shooting inside the tent.
Just last week, Trump used his Truth Social platform to promote rumors that DeSantis partied with underaged girls while working as a teacher at a Georgia high school.
He re-shared a follower’s post of an image purported to be a young DeSantis, with three girls around him whose faces are blurred out.
‘Ron DeSantis was having a ‘drink’ party with his students when he was a high school teacher. Having drinks with underage girls and cuddling with them certainly look pretty gross and ephebophiliaesque,’ the post said.
Trump commented: ‘No way?’
‘That’s not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing!’ he added in a separate post.
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