The Trump campaign team has sent a pointed “State of the Race” memo to the stakeholders and interested parties of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign, presenting a litany of circumstances that cast a long shadow over the governor’s shrinking hopes of become the 2024 presidential nominee.
In the memo, Trump advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles noted the following:
“As Governor Ron DeSantis hits the road over the next week, seeking more funds for his campaign, we believe it is important to provide you, the donors who generously fund and raise money, with a list of relevant questions considering the current circumstances faced by his campaign.”
They pointed out that “every public poll now shows Ron DeSantis trailing President Trump by a significant margin” and added that DeSantis’s “senior campaign officials have even confirmed this disparity.”
President Trump is indeed holding an overwhelming lead in the 2024 presidential primary, dominating DeSantis by 30-50 points on average. In fact, new election betting odds from Maxim Lott and John Stossel found that Trump currently has a 68.1 percent chance of winning the 2024 GOP presidential nomination compared to DeSantis, who had 10.9 percent.
The Trump team’s memo also included information from mainstream outlets like NBC, ABC, and The New York Times as cursory examples of DeSantis’s loss of momentum.
Sourcing ABC News for reports of the DeSantis campaign’s poor polling performance, they included, “As if that were not enough, the full extent of disorganization within the DeSantis campaign is now coming to light after public filings revealed that the campaign is spending unsustainably on a bloated payroll and not raising sufficient funds necessary for a long-term campaign.”
Additionally, they raised a point from the NYT, which pointed to potential financial issues with the DeSantis campaigns. Most pointedly, perhaps, is the noted lack of grassroots support – something the Trump campaign has in spades.
The Trump campaign asked a few questions in their memo:
- “What exactly are the 93 individuals on the campaign payroll doing?
- Can you provide assurance to SuperPAC donors that Jeff Roe is not claiming $0.68 for each dollar spent, as his private investment information suggests?
- What is the campaign’s expenditure breakdown, and can you provide the return on investment for direct mail and online fundraising operations?
- Despite the SuperPAC and affiliated organizations like the Club for No Growth and Koch Brothers operations spending tens of millions of dollars to prop up Ron DeSantis while attacking President Trump, the numbers have not budged. In fact, they have moved in favor of President Trump. What is the campaign’s plan to change this trajectory?
- If the Corporate Media is responsible, as the Governor has stated, for the polling collapse (not Republican voters), why seek attention from Jake Tapper?”
They additionally slammed the DeSantis campaign for allegedly spending too much money on “unmotivated door knockers.”
They concluded, “Of course, if I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting any answers or accountability. Given the aforementioned points, if you still collectively pour millions of dollars into the failing Ron DeSantis campaign, you can’t say you weren’t warned.”