Trump visits Downtown House of Pizza in Fort Myers, Florida, with Rep. Byron Donalds and son Mason. Credit: Dan Scavino.
Former President Donald Trump is leading in most of the polls in the GOP primary race. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is trailing but has not yet officially declared a run. In a new Wall Street Journal poll, released on Friday, Trump turned what had been a 14-point deficit into a 13-point lead, now leading DeSantis 51 to 38 percent among likely GOP voters. This follows a Fox News poll at the end of March that showed Trump up by 30 points, 54 to 24 percent.DeSantis has gotten some important endorsements from folks like Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL). However, Trump has also gotten a big part of the Florida delegation to endorse him in a blow to DeSantis, who reportedly had said he was trying to call them to prevent them from endorsing Trump.
Axios’ Josh Kraushaar observed it was “no surprise that DeSantis wasn’t going to get Matt Gaetz or Anna Paulina Luna.”
“But to lose Greg Steube, Brian Mast and Byron Donalds — the type of FL Republicans you’d expect to be on the DeSantis bandwagon — is a leading indicator something not right with the RD outreach,” Kraushaar noted.
Trump has also gotten Florida Reps. Vern Buchanan, Cory Mills, John Rutherford, and Michael Waltz. He also picked up Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Carlos Gimenez. Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) praised DeSantis but said he was going with Trump.
Now, it’s pretty clear that Trump is hoping that he can put DeSantis away early, with such endorsements, and discourage him from even declaring. I think at this point that’s probably unlikely, however. Even though DeSantis hasn’t yet declared, he’s given all the signs. So, expect the fight between the two to heat up more once he declares.
But Trump was lighting it up at a pizza parlor Downtown House of Pizza in Fort Myers with Byron Donalds and his youngest son, Mason. This is what he should be doing more of. If I were a campaign adviser — and I’m not — I would advise more of showing this connection with the people, and concentrating on the successful policies that he had while he was president and what he intends to do for America in the future. You want to point out all the positive things he did while president.
Then compare that to the horrible things that Joe Biden has done, how he’s crushing us with inflation and abandoned our people and allies in Afghanistan. Compare this to Joe Biden who can’t even spell “eight,” and can’t make a coherent sentence. He is embarrassing our country all over the world and endangering our national security. That’s the priority — to make sure that Joe Biden loses, so that we can stop the harm that’s being done to the country with the Democrats in control.
Mason’s is perhaps the best part of the video — he’s so excited, and even wearing a suit.
Trump is funny, as he jokes and tells Mason not to “eat it with a fork.” He then handed out slices to people.
The rest of the crowd was cheering as well, chanting “USA, USA” and “Trump, Trump!”
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO.
Donalds also posted about the visit, saying that he was going to help Trump win Florida.
----
TWEET
