Former President Donald Trump on Thursday released polls that showed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis beating him in a head-to-head contest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“Great polls have just come out on me versus several others, including [President Joe] Biden, but I still have to put up with the same old “thing” of The Wall Street Journal, which has lost a priceless amount of clout over the years, and Fox News, whose polls on me have been seriously WRONG from the day I came off the escalator in Trump Tower” to announce its first run, Trump said on the Truth Social media platform.
DeSantis led Trump by 52 percent to 38 percent in the Wall Street Journal poll, released Wednesday. Fox News reported on the Wall Street Journal poll and a USA Today/Suffolk University poll showing that DeSantis was up 56 percent to 33 percent against Trump in a one-on-one test.
DeSantis, who is not expected to announce whether he will run for office until after Florida’s legislative session in the spring or summer, has quickly emerged as the leading alternative to the former president among GOP primary voters . In November, he won re-election by nearly 20 points over Democratic former governor Charlie Crist, and is clearly the rival Trump is most concerned about.
“DeSantis is on the rise and Trump is increasingly afraid of being left for dead by the Republican Party,” said Dan Eberhart, a GOP donor who supports the Florida governor. “Trump won’t let DeSantis seize his throne without a fight. We’re on the verge of nothing short of civil war in the Republican Party.”
Trump allies warn that primaries are more than a year away, noting that other polls show Trump in a much stronger position and that all surveys are a snapshot.
“For every bad poll there is a good poll,” said a person close to Trump, who is currently the only candidate in the race.
A DeSantis adviser declined to comment on this story.
The hypothetical head-to-head matchups assume that Trump and DeSantis are the only candidates to receive support from the GOP primary voters. But there is a long list of Republican figures looking at potential bids, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
Trump is right that some studies show he has a good reputation, especially when the field is crowded. A Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday placed him at 45 percent, compared to 30 percent for DeSantis, 7 percent for Pence and the rest split between a dozen other candidates.
A GOP strategist who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign compared DeSantis’ early lead to the rapidly disappearing lead then-Texas Governor Rick Perry had over the GOP field at the start of the 2012 primary race DeSantis is in “a very good place right now,” the quarterback said, but may not have the luxury of waiting to “harness that energy.”
Citing Trump’s desire for brutal political combat, the strategist added that it remains to be seen whether DeSantis can withstand an attack from the former president.
“The problem with DeSantis is he wasn’t beaten,” the quarterback said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
