TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — The mudslinging between Governor Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump got messier over the weekend when a pro-DeSantis PAC launched two negative ads against Trump.
Never Back Down – a PAC promoting DeSantis for president in 2024 – launched a pair of television advertisements attacking Trump. Although the governor has not yet announced his intention to run for president, he is widely expected to do so in the near future.
“GUN-GRABBING TRUMP”
The first ad took aim at the former president’s stance on gun legislation, painting him as a traitor to Second Amendment loyalists.
“Half of you are so afraid of the NRA. We have to fight them every once in a while” Trump says in the “Gun-Grabbing Trump” ad.
The ad fired off a handful of clips showing Trump finding common ground with anti-gun politicians.
As Trump is talking about gun restrictions he supports, the ad displays prominent Democrats, including: President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“I like taking the guns early,” Trump says in the ad. “Take the guns first, go through due-process second.”
“FIGHT DEMOCRATS, NOT REPUBLICANS”
The second ad – “Fight Democrats, Not Republicans” – criticized Trump’s repeated attacks on DeSantis.
“Donald Trump is being attacked by a Democrat prosecutor in New York, so why is he spending millions attacking the Republican Governor of Florida,” the video’s narrator asks. “Trump is stealing pages from the Biden-Pelosi playbook – repeating lies about social security.”
The ad plays a clip of DeSantis saying “We’re not going to mess with social security as Republicans.”
Immediately following the governor’s comments, the ad plays a video of Trump answering a reporter who asked “[Will] entitlements ever be on your plate [as president]?”
Trump responds: “At some point, they will be. We will take a look at that.”
The ad concludes by asking a rhetorical question of the viewer: “What happened to Donald Trump?”
