DESANTIS: My Pro-Trump 2018 Campaign Ad Was ‘Satirical,’ Just Wanted MAGA ‘Notoriety’
“I was running and um, we wanted to get some notoriety, and so I knew if we did that, that it would cause the press to go berserk.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a recent interview appeared to downplay his past support for the “Make America Great Again” movement during his 2018 gubernatorial run, affirming that his viral pro-Trump campaign advertisement was merely satire to garner “notoriety” from the hysterically anti-Trump mainstream media.
During the interview released this week, host John Stossel asked DeSantis about one of his 2018 gubernatorial campaign advertisements in which he celebrated his support from the 45th President.
In the ad, DeSantis was seen reading a book to his children. “Make America Great Again. Build the wall!” DeSantis gushed, “Then Mr. Trump said, ‘You’re fired!’ I love that part.”
Reacting to the ad, Stossel said: “‘Big league,’ ‘so good,’ ‘build the wall’ — it sounds like you were sucking up to Trump!”
“Well, if you watch that, I mean, you know, it was, it was, it was a satirical ad. It was a little tongue-in-cheek. But that was, when, you know, many years ago. I was running and um, we wanted to get some notoriety, and so I knew if we did that, that it would cause the press to go berserk,” DeSantis said.
“And what they would do, is they would be outraged by it, but they would keep playing it. And so, people would see. And so what we were able to say was: ‘Okay, here’s my wife, we’re a young family, here’s that.’ And so that kind of got projected out,” the governor continued.
“I don’t even know how much money we paid to, to run it. But the media ran it for us cause they were so upset, you know, that it was uh, that it was a pro-Trump ad,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis’ MAGA campaign advertisement was subject to criticism in Trump’s first 2024 presidential campaign television commercial.
The 60-second commercial featured previous endorsements, appearances, and advertisements featuring DeSantis speaking flatteringly of the former president. The examples ranged from DeSantis victory speeches to the campaign commercial where DeSantis read a Trump-themed story book to his children before bed.
“Ron DeSantis was struggling big time in his primary race for Governor of Florida,” Trump’s ad said.
The Trump campaign is up on TV with this 60-second spot. Airing nationally
This is the first TV ad spending of the 2024 cycle from @TeamTrump pic.twitter.com/UzGxcm2w0d
— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) April 26, 2023
The ad includes an excerpt from DeSantis’ victory speech: “I’d like to thank our President for standing by me when it wasn’t necessarily the smart thing to do.”
Despite sinking poll numbers, DeSantis will announce his presidential challenge against Trump during a Twitter Spaces conversation with Elon Musk on Wednesday.
According to three sources “familar with the plan,” NBC News claimed that DeSantis will sit down with Musk on Twitter Spaces, the site’s audio platform, for a conversation moderated by David Sacks, a “tech enterpreneur… [and] Musk confidant” at 6PM EDT on Wednesday.
