Days after a Donald Trump–aligned group released an ad mocking Governor Ron DeSantis’s allegedly sloppy table manners, a pro-DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down, is finally flinging some mud of its own. Until now, DeSantis and his allies had been taking the high road in response to escalating attacks from Trumpworld—but that strategy appears to have been abandoned, as evidenced by an attack ad that premiered on Fox News Sunday.
“Donald Trump is being attacked by a Democrat prosecutor in New York,” a narrator says in the ad, titled “Fight Democrats, Not Republicans.” “So why is he spending millions attacking the Republican governor of Florida?” The 30-second spot goes on to accuse the former president of using the Democratic Party’s playbook to hit DeSantis over his past support for Social Security cuts. The ad then closes with a photo of Trump looking sweaty and worn down as the question “What happened to Donald Trump?” flashes across the screen.
It was not quite an equal counterattack against the ad released by a Trump-aligned super PAC last week, which pictured a DeSantis stand-in fingering cups of chocolate pudding. (The Daily Beast reported last month that DeSantis was seen eating said treat with three fingers on a private plane trip in 2019. In response to the report, DeSantis later said, “I don’t remember ever doing that.”) Rather, DeSantis’s ad appears more like a conciliatory plea for Trump to stop being so mean to the Republican governor. Still, it does succeed in raising the temperature in a primary battle that will only grow more bitter if and when DeSantis officially enters the race.
On Friday, Never Back Down also attacked Trump’s record on the Second Amendment, including his support for stricter red flag laws; raising the legal age for firearm ownership to 21; and a national ban bump stocks, the last of which he approved in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. “Trump cut and ran like a coward,” says the ad spot. “Trump the gun-grabber doesn’t deserve a second chance.” The video dropped on the same day that Trump told the National Rifle Association that he would remain a “loyal friend and fearless champion” if he regains the presidency.
While DeSantis has seen a steady polling decline in recent weeks, a new Public Opinion Strategies survey showed the governor leading Joe Biden by 6% and 3% in Arizona and Pennsylvania, respectively. The same poll, which was first reported by McClatchyDC, had Biden beating Trump by one percentage point in Arizona and by 4% in Pennsylvania. (The Trump campaign, for its part, has called it a “fake…POS poll,” writing in a Sunday tweet that Public Opinion Strategies “refused to disclose their ties to other 2024 candidates.”)
As favorable to DeSantis as it might appear, that one poll does not reflect the feelings of Republican voters, whom the governor will have to persuade if he wants to make it to the general election. Last week, FiveThirtyEight revealed that its national polling average of the GOP primary had Trump at 49.3% and DeSantis at 26.2%, with the former president’s lead growing amid his mounting legal problems.
