George Soros predicts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be the GOP’s frontrunner in 2024

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros made a bold prediction at the Munich Security Conference this week, suggesting that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could be the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election.

Soros, a major Democratic donor, said he hopes for a "brutal primary fight" between DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, with the billionaire predicting DeSantis will win. He suggested that Trump's bruised ego may lead to a third-party run to stop the Republican from winning the White House.

“My hope for 2024 is that Trump and Governor DeSantis of Florida will slug it out for the Republican nomination," Soros said.

Soros added:

Trump has turned into a pitiful figure, continually bemoaning his loss in 2020. Big Republican donors are abandoning him in droves.

DeSantis is shrewd, ruthless, and ambitious. He is likely to be the Republican candidate. This could induce Trump, whose narcissism has turned into a disease, to run as a third-party candidate. That would lead to a Democratic landslide and force the Republican Party to reform itself. But perhaps I am maybe just a little bit biased.

Soros and DeSantis have been embroiled in a feud of their own since the governor took office in 2018, with Soros' Open Society network donating $1.3 million to activists who sued DeSantis last year for sending illegal aliens to Martha's Vineyard. DeSantis has also been vocal in his criticism of Soros-backed prosecutors, while running Spanish-language ads against Soros to boost Latino support for Democrats.

The governor's top aide Christina Pushaw responded to false attacks by Trump's allies claiming that Soros endorsed DeSantis, writing on Twitter: “Resorting to fabricated propaganda and false smear attacks is the clearest indication that someone does not have any legitimate points of criticism.”

The jabs come after Trump baselessly suggested that DeSantis groomed underage girls with alcohol, made false claims about DeSantis' record in handling the coronavirus pandemic, and claimed that DeSantis “begged” him for an endorsement with “tears coming down from his eyes.”