Donald Trump might have admitted to criminal activity — again — in a rant on his alternative social media platform known as Truth Social.
The short version of the rant is that he was furious over speculation about a potential presidential run from Ron DeSantis, the recently re-elected Republican governor of Florida, who prevailed over his Democratic challenger in this week’s midterm elections by a margin of nearly 20 percent after getting elected the first time by a margin of under one-half of a percentage point. In Trump’s multi-post rant about DeSantis, he also took what seems like primary credit for the success of at least Ron’s original campaign when an endorsement from the then-president preceded DeSantis’s success in the GOP primary against a widely supported then-official, Adam Putnam, who was the state Agriculture Commissioner, meaning he already won a statewide election. DeSantis, in contrast, was a Congressman.
Trump has a history of taking substantial levels of credit for the success of candidates he endorsed, although it’s ridiculous to suggest that someone like Mitch McConnell won his most recent race for re-election solely because of Donald’s support. Kentucky is a longtime GOP-leaning state where a comparatively small selection of polling that suggested the Democratic challenger had a higher-than-expected chance didn’t actually and conclusively mean that the entire state suddenly shifted towards the Democrats and then only shifted back once Donald issued his endorsement. As for DeSantis, Trump was also angry about Ron’s inconclusive answers when asked about the prospect of the Florida governor running for president. Polling has relatively consistently suggested that DeSantis would have the best chance of toppling Trump in a primary match-up, with Ron leading in multiple polls from Florida.
Trump also made surprising comments about supposedly sending federal assistance for locking down Ron’s 2018 win. It wasn’t clear what he was actually trying to reference, but meddling in the outcome of an election could constitute a crime. “I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart,” Donald said. “I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen. And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, “I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.” Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”
