Former president Donald Trump has claimed that he will beat Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis if he turns out to be one of his opponents in the 2024 presidential elections.
Though Mr Trump has not formally announced a re-run campaign, he has dropped several hints that he will do so.
Mr Trump said he believed that “most people would drop out” if he entered the race, according to an interview excerpt published by Yahoo Finance on Sunday. The full interview will be out on Monday.
“I don’t think I will face him,” Mr Trump added. “I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.”
And if they don’t, the former president thinks that he could “beat” all of them, including Mr DeSantis, who is being viewed as a potential candidate in the Republican party.
“If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else,” Mr Trump said, adding: “If I do run, I think that I’ll do extremely well.”
Mr DeSantis has himself not yet announced any plan to run in the 2024 US presidential elections, and says he is planning to run again for governor.
“I’m not considering anything beyond doing my job. We got a lot of stuff going on in Florida,” Mr DeSantis told Fox News on Thursday. “I’m going to be running for re-election next year.”
Though the Florida governor is being considered a potential candidate, Mr Trump’s popularity in the Republican party remains unmatched – despite the fact that he is the first president in US history to refuse to accept an electoral defeat and still reiterates his unfounded claims of voter fraud.
A recent poll by CNN showed that 63 per cent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents would like to see Mr Trump leading the party again. Just a little over 50 per cent believe that having him back on the presidential ticket is a good idea.
