Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis brushed aside concerns over polling below former President Donald Trump on Monday with a suggestion about “if and when” he would expect to see those numbers change.
(Video: NBC News)
A mainstay of the former president’s 2024 campaign has been to roll out whichever latest poll painted him in the best light over the rest of a prospective field of GOP contenders — especially the governor most often referred to as “DeSanctimonious.” Monday, America’s Governor touched down in Japan for the first stop of a multi-nation sojourn to strengthen economic ties abroad for Florida, and he was pointedly asked about his current runner-up status.
“Governor, polls showing you falling behind Trump. Any thoughts on that?” a reporter could be heard asking at a press stop in Tokyo.
With an amused expression, DeSantis responded, “I’m not a candidate, so we’ll see if and when that changes.”
The governor’s reaction stood in stark contrast to the hyperfocus displayed by Trump on numbers likely to change in the more than nine months remaining before the first ballot is cast of the primary season. However, it did provide further fuel for the speculation that his candidacy was a foregone conclusion as DeSantis said “when,” suggesting it was only a matter of time before his bid for the Republican nomination officially began.
Meanwhile, Trump himself had admitted while speaking at a National Rifle Association event, “And so if you see some of these, I just thought you’d put ’em up — remember the old days I used to always announce polls? Only if they were good. I wouldn’t announce them if they weren’t good. If I had a bad one, I wouldn’t. But when they were good, I used to, I used to drive the opposition crazy.”
Though the president has remained a favored candidate for many in the Republican Party, a previously reported NBC News poll found that 60 percent of respondents were opposed to Trump seeking a third consecutive nomination.
“At this stage,” Hart Research Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt said of the poll he helped conduct, “2024 is shaping up to be a sequel of the 2020 election. Sequels are frequently hits at the box office, but apparently not at the ballot box.”
The same poll found 70 percent of respondents against President Joe Biden seeking reelection and a generic Republican beating him in a nationwide race by 47 to 41 percent.
Recent favorability polling also appears to favor Gov. DeSantis:
This is why the former president is spending all his efforts attacking the Governor of his home state rather than joe biden.
This poll was conducted by trump's own pollster. It shows trump is unelectable. pic.twitter.com/vf8ajnpQV6— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) April 22, 2023
That said, a RealClearPolitics aggregate found that Trump holds a considerable lead over DeSantis at 52.4 to 23.4 percent as of April 19, increasing the margin from March 31 when the president topped the governor at 45.9 to 30.1 percent overall.
Following his trip to Japan where he met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, DeSantis is expected to travel to South Korea, Israel, and the United Kingdom.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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