In a Sunday interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, former President Donald Trump criticized the presidential campaign of his Republican rival, Ron DeSantis.
Baritromo asked Trump about how his Republican primary campaign is being affected by the indictments leveled against him. He replied by discussing the Republican primary polls showing a wide gap between himself and the rest of the field.
“I think it’s probably so far helped my campaign because you see the numbers better than I do, and I’ve never — DeSanticimonious is a terrible candidate, and I think he’s out. I’m leading the Republican Party by 40, 50, 60 points. Most of these guys are at 1, 2 and 3. He’s now in the teens, and I’m at 60 and 70. I think it probably, you know, there are those that say it helped because the people of the country are smart. This is the weaponization of government,” Trump said.
The RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average has Trump leading DeSantis by over 30 points in the Republican presidential primary. He averaged 53.0% in the polls from June 13 to July 11 compared to 20.6% for DeSantis and 6.3% for former Vice President Mike Pence, RCP calculated.
Trump’s lead against DeSantis has gone relatively unchanged since the Florida governor announced his run for president in late May.