Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dismisses Trump's 'globalist' attacks on him

AP Photo/Marta Lavandier

In response to former President Donald Trump's weekend criticisms of his COVID response, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shrugged off the attacks on Tuesday.

As reported by Rebel News, Trump had sought to paint DeSantis as pro-lockdown in the early days of the pandemic, called him a "globalist," and sought to stick him with the Trumpian moniker "Ron DeSanctimonius."

“I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles. It’s been happening for many, many years,” DeSantis said, noting that “in a crisis situation like COVID, the good thing about it is when you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions, you’ve got to steer that ship.”

DESANTIS RESPONDS TO TRUMP ATTACKS: "I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles [...] In my case, not only did we win re-election, we won with the highest percentage of the vote than any Republican governor candidate in the history of the state of Florida." pic.twitter.com/FLEXeVPlRn

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) January 31, 2023

Trump’s criticisms of DeSantis over his COVID policies appear to be unfounded given that they were based on Trump’s own policy recommendations during the height of the pandemic. Notably, DeSantis reopened Florida schools and businesses long before other major states.

DeSantis was subject to media scrutiny for his opposition to mask and vaccine mandates, and the state of Florida banned companies from forcing employees to require COVID vaccinations.

DeSantis' resounding victory in November, in which he won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points, affirmed support for his handling of the pandemic.

DeSantis said:

We won by the largest raw vote margin, over 1.5 million votes, than any governor candidate has ever had in Florida history.

And so what I would just say is, that verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida.