A super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis fired back against Donald Trump for the first time, slamming the former president for attacking a fellow Republican.
“Trump should fight Democrats, not lie about Gov. DeSantis,” the 30-second TV spot says. “What happened to Donald Trump?”
The ad was released by the independent PAC Never Back Down, formed last month by former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli to “urge Ron DeSantis to run for president.” The governor has not yet officially announced a campaign for president in 2024 but is still widely expected to run despite dropping in the polls to Trump.
Never Back Down’s new ad, which played on Fox News, was a response to a commercial released last week from the pro-Trump organization Make America Great Again Inc.
The pro-Trump ad criticized DeSantis for his past stances on Medicare and Social Security. It also alluded to a report that DeSantis once ate pudding with three fingers by recreating the scene with an actor.
“Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong,” the ad says. “And we’re not just talking about pudding. DeSantis has his dirty fingers all over senior entitlements like cutting Medicare, slashing Social Security, even raising our retirement age. Tell Ron DeSantis to keep his pudding fingers off our money. Get this man a spoon.”
The pro-DeSantis ad uses brief clips to attempt to thwart the Trump campaign’s allegations about DeSantis’ views, which stem from his past votes in Congress to raise the retirement age to 70 and on Medicare benefits.
The Never Back Down ad quotes DeSantis saying, “we’re not going to mess with Social Security as Republicans.” It also quotes Trump answering a question about whether “entitlements” were on the table for cuts by saying, “At some point they will be, we will take a look at them.”
The ad also tries to thread a needle by criticizing the indictment of Trump by a Manhattan grand jury while at the same time attacking Trump and comparing him to Democrats.
“Donald Trump is being attacked by a Democrat prosecutor in New York,” the ad says. “So why is he spending millions attacking the Republican governor of Florida? Trump’s stealing pages from the bike Pelosi playbook repeating lies about Social Security.”
Trump has also continued criticizing DeSantis on his social media site, Truth Social. On Sunday, he posted an illustration of DeSantis being carried on their shoulders by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former George W. Bush aide Karl Rove.
Bush has endorsed DeSantis for president, while Rove has been highly critical of Trump and has called the pudding ad “stupid.” Trump also attacked former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was once portrayed in an attack ad against his Social Security and Medicare policies as pushing a grandmother off of a cliff.
“Social Security and Medicare, and Ron’s attack on both, have destroyed DeSanctimonious,” Trump wrote. “His love affair with Jeb and Karl Rove certainly haven’t helped, but being a DISCIPLE of ‘Wheelchair over the Cliff’ Paul Ryan has been a disaster.”
