Trump goes after Youngkin after turning on DeSantis
Youngkin #Youngkin
Former President Donald Trump on Friday jabbed at Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin, lashing out for a second straight day at a potential rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he helped found. “I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him – or he couldn’t have come close to winning. But he knows that, and admits it. Besides, having a hard time with the Dems in Virginia – But he’ll get it done!”
The Virginia governor is the latest of Trump’s former allies who he has seemingly turned on in the past few days — following disappointing results for many Trump-backed candidates in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Trump on Thursday attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — another governor elected with the aid of a Trump endorsement — in a rambling statement, taking credit for DeSantis’ success and belittling him as “average.”
Both Youngkin and DeSantis, viewed as ascendant figures in the GOP, are seen as potential rivals for Trump in the 2024 race for the Republican nomination for president. Trump is expected to announce his bid for president at an event at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.
As DeSantis’ national stock has risen over the past few weeks — accentuated by his landslide reelection win on Tuesday amid otherwise underwhelming results for Republicans nationwide — Trump has increasingly taken jabs at the Florida governor, at one point nicknaming him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” DeSantis has not publicly responded to Trump’s comments.
It’s unclear what provoked Trump’s jab at Youngkin on Friday, though Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor has been critical in recent days of the former president. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who once campaigned for Trump in 2020, told The Washington Post on Thursday — in the aftermath of the midterms — that the former president was “a liability to the mission” for Republicans. Radio host John Fredericks, a chair of Trump’s Virginia campaigns in 2016 and 2020, suggested that Earle-Sears’s comments were made at Youngkin’s direction.
Spokespeople for Youngkin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.