Donald Trump Spreads Rumor Ron DeSantis Is Dropping Out of 2024 Race

Former President Donald Trump took to social media on Monday to spread a supposed rumor about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropping out of next year’s presidential race.

Trump and DeSantis have long been considered the two leading candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, though Trump has always maintained a clear lead in the polls. Recently, however, DeSantis’s prospects have seemed to falter amid an awkward campaign and messaging that has not resonated at the national level.

Around late February, FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average had Trump and DeSantis nearly neck-and-neck, but over the ensuing months, the former president’s support has grown while the governor’s has dwindled. As of Monday, Trump’s average polling was at nearly 50 percent, while DeSantis was down to just 15 percent, only five points ahead of the third-place candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy. Many now consider Trump’s victory in the GOP primary a foregone conclusion, including the former president himself, who cited his polling as a reason for skipping the recent Republican primary debate on Fox News.

In a since-deleted post to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump on Monday continued to take digs at DeSantis, sharing an unsubstantiated “roomer” that the governor was planning to drop out of the race to focus on a U.S. Senate campaign.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivers the “State of the State” address in Tallahassee, Florida, on March 7. Former President Donald Trump took to social media on Monday to spread a supposed rumor about DeSantis dropping out of next year’s presidential race. Cheney Orr/AFP/Getty

“Roomer [sic] are [sic] strong in political circles that Ron DeSanctimonious, whose Presidential run is a shambles, and whose poll numbers have absolutely crashed, putting him 3rd and 4th in some states, will be dropping out of the Presidential race in order to run, in Florida, against Rick Scott for Senate,” the former president wrote in the post. “Now that’s an interesting one, isn’t it?”

Newsweek reached out to representatives for both DeSantis and Scott via email and direct message for comment.

It is unclear based on the post alone where Trump might have heard the rumor. Raw Story, however, noted on Monday that a similar rumor was shared last week by Rick Wilson, the former Republican strategist now affiliated with the anti-MAGA group, The Lincoln Project.

“Hot Tallahassee rumor just landed in my lap,” Wilson posted to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, then quoting an unnamed source as saying, “Wait until DeSantis primaries Rick Scott.”

Newsweek could not independently confirm or source such rumors.

DeSantis, despite his recent troubles, has made no indication that he intends to drop out of the 2024 presidential race before state primaries begin next year. Scott, who was once rumored to be considering his own presidential bid, is running for reelection to the U.S. Senate. Former U.S. Representative from Florida Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Scott for his seat.