During a recent interview, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis decided to take a shot at former President Donald Trump’s supporters, calling them “listless vessels.”
DeSantis made his comments while speaking with the Florida Standard, saying, “A movement can’t be about the personality of one individual.”
“The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people, and that’s got to be based in principle, because if you’re not rooted in principle if all we are is listless vessels that’s just supposed to follow … whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement,” the Florida governor said.
DeSantis and Trump have been going back and forth with one another for almost a year as the two of the most supported GOP presidential nominee hopefuls. In the war of insults, Trump has called his rival 'Little D' and 'DeSanctimonious', plus the classics 'Meatball Ron' and 'Ron DeSaster.'
However, support for Trump has grown in recent months, despite the 91 separate charges he is currently facing, and support for DeSantis has fallen.
In a recent Emerson College poll, Desantis was tied for the number two spot for the first time with Conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
The poll showed the growing support for Ramaswamy, who was polling at just about 2% in June, and the declining support for the Florida governor, who was at 21% at the time.
However, DeSantis is still focusing on Trump, who leads all Republican hopefuls by a large margin in nearly every poll.
During his interview, DeSantis continued to draw attention to the failures of Trump, including the 2020 election and his recent legal troubles.
Still, not everyone is on board with the approach from the Florida governor, as many took to social media to criticize him for his comments about Trump.
“DeSantis goes full-blown Hillary [Clinton] and call[s] MAGA supporters ‘listless vessels,’” Former White House executive Steven Cheung wrote on X.
Others, like Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Maga Inc., a Trump-aligned fundraising committee, also shared the comparison of DeSantis to Clinton.
“To Hillary Clinton, Trump supporters are ‘deplorables.’ To Ron DeSantis, they are ‘listless vessels,’” Leavitt posted. “The truth is, Trump supporters are patriots. DeSantis must immediately apologize for his disgraceful insult.”
DeSantis also discussed the term “rinos” during his sit down, a phrase granted to politicians who are “Republicans in name only.”
“I think that we have a stream in our party that views supporting Trump as whether you are a Rino or not,” DeSantis said. “And so you could be the most conservative person since sliced bread, unless you’re kissing his rear end, they will somehow call you a Rino.”
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