TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Ron DeSantis says he’s surprised at some of the recent attacks from former President Donald Trump.
Speaking to Eric Bolling on Newsmax last night, the governor said Trump is now attacking him from the Left and emphasized that “he’s not the same Donald Trump from 2015 or 2016.”
“I mean, he was a hard charger leaning in on all the issues, very edgy on conservative issues and it was part of the reason he did so well [in 2016].”
DeSantis brought up two issues he’s passionate about – protecting kids and opposing amnesty – and told Bolling that Trump’s hits are an assault on conservative viewpoints and the America First position.
“When he’s taken Disney’s side against me, I just kind of wonder like, ok, I get he wants to hit me but don’t take the side of a multinational corporation that wants to sexualize kids,” DeSantis said.
ILLEGAL ALIENS
“He’s also hitting me against voting against immigration amnesty,” DeSantis told Bolling.
DeSantis recalled a bill in Congress in 2018 that would fund Trump’s border wall. But according to DeSantis, the bill would have given two million illegal aliens amnesty in the U.S. and would have allocated very little money for border security.
“All conservatives opposed it,” DeSantis said. “He did support it [amnesty] as president, which a lot of us were upset about.”
BORDER SECURITY
Under the Trump administration, fewer overall people were deported compared to former President Obama’s administration despite the ongoing crackdown on immigrants without legal status, according to a report by the Washington Post.
While the Obama administration deported 1.18 million people in his first three
years, the number of deportations under Trump was just under 800,000 in 2019, according to the report.
But DeSantis told The Florida Standard that one of his number one priorities as president is to secure the southern border.
“I think obviously we gotta see what it looks like when you get in there, but I’m gonna make it a day one priority,” DeSantis told us. “I will use all the levers available to me to push that through.”
DeSantis retold the story of bridges that were damaged during Hurricane Ian last year in Southwest Florida and how people said it would take more than six months to rebuild.
“We got one done in three days and the other done in two weeks,” DeSantis said.
But if elected president, will DeSantis be able to cut through the red tape in Washington where it’s common practice for officials to make excuses?
“You just have to be disciplined,” DeSantis told us. “You can’t get distracted on this stuff. “It’s something that’s been going on for decades and I think our voters just want to see it put to an end.”