Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently slammed the former President Donald Trump over a series of missteps and labeled it as “sad” that Trump needs clean-ups “every time he goes off teleprompter” via Media Ite.
Trump has faced criticism for lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli defense officials while praising Hezbollah as “very smart” amid the continued violence following the coordinated terrorist assault by Hamas.
After the backlash, Trump began walking back his criticisms on his Truth Social account.
While campaigning in New Hampshire Friday, DeSantis — who trails Trump badly in GOP primary polls — was asked about Trump’s clean-up effort, and DeSantis attacked Trump:
“REPORTER: Do you have any reaction to that? Do you think that you know why he’s walking back those comments?
DESANTIS: Look, I mean, you know, I think we have the Donald Trump on the teleprompter where he’s reading what’s on there. Then you have the Donald Trump when he gets off that teleprompter. And that’s the real Donald Trump, when he starts speaking about those things.
And so he attacked Bibi after the country suffered the worst attack it’s had in its modern history. When there, you know, he just created a war government. They’re preparing to do a ground invasion in Gaza.
And he did that because Bibi did not– Bibi congratulated Biden in November. That’s why he did it. He hates Netanyahu because of that. That’s about him. That’s not about the greater good of what Israel’s trying to do or American security.
And so I think it’s fine to to kind of clean up and do all that. I would say go out, get rid of your teleprompter. Don’t use that as a crutch. Go to debates show up in debate for 2 hours and then we’ll be able to see kind of where he’s really coming from.
So we’ve seen over the course every interview, every time he’s gotten off the teleprompter for like the last two months, they’ve had to clean things up for what he’s saying.
So I just want to see, you know, the Donald Trump, this is a different Donald Trump! In 2016. He was free-wheeling. He’s out there barnstorming the country, doing all this. You know, now it’s just a different guy. And that’s just, it’s sad to see!”
