New poll finds Trump's lead over DeSantis is narrowing after indictment and campaign announcement



A new poll found that former President Donald Trump is still beating Ron DeSantis, but the Florida governor made gains in narrowing the distance to the frontrunner in the primary race since announcing his presidential campaign.

The Reuters Ipsos poll was released Monday.

It showed that DeSantis garnered the support of 22% of self-identified Republicans for the GOP primary while Trump had 43% of their support.

That margin of 21 percentage points is far fewer than the margin in April when Trump had 58% support and DeSantis only had 21% support.

The popular Florida governor has since declared his presidential campaign and become the most popular alternative to Trump, the frontrunner.

The poll also found that a majority of Republicans, 81%, agreed that the indictment against Trump was politically motivated. 35% of Republicans also said that the charges against Trump related to documents being improperly kept at his Mar-a-Lago residence were believable.

A separate poll found similar results for DeSantis in Iowa, a key early voting state. The WPA Intelligence survey said that the Florida governor was in a virtual tie in a head-to-head contest with the former president, who had 45% support compared to 43% for DeSantis.

When respondents in that poll were asked to consider all the other GOP candidates, DeSantis garnered 29% of support while Trump garnered 39%.

Trump has lashed out at DeSantis by calling him disloyal and accusing him of having a worse record in relation to the coronavirus pandemic than Democratic governors. DeSantis has responded by accusing Trump of trying to hit at him from the left, especially on his fight against Disney.

"He was a hard charger leaning in on all the issues very edgy on conservative issues, and it was part of the reason he did so well," said DeSantis in an interview in May.

"But when he's taken Disney's side against me, I just kind of wonder like, okay, I get he wants to hit me, but don't take the side of a multinational corporation that wants to sexualize kids," he added. "He's also hitting me against voting against immigration amnesty."

Here's more about the GOP primary race:

DeSantis Touts New Iowa Poll Showing Him Gaining Ground On Trump www.youtube.com

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BEHIND THE SCENES: Ron DeSantis' 2024 Announcement with Elon Musk | Direct Message | Rubin Report

BEHIND THE SCENES: Ron DeSantis' 2024 Announcement with Elon Musk | Direct Message | Rubin Report

Trump responds to DeSantis 2024 announcement with mocking videos on Truth Social: 'My Red Button is bigger'



Former President Donald Trump responded to the presidential announcement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) with various mocking videos and a cryptic statement about North Korea.

DeSantis made the announcement with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk in a Twitter Spaces audio stream. The platform kept crashing for many users, and some reported minutes of uncomfortable silence as they tried to figure out how to continue.

Trump pushed out a number of videos mocking the glitches and posted his responses on Truth Social, a platform meant to compete with Twitter.

"'Rob,' my Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!)" Trump wrote.

In one video, Trump accused DeSantis of riding his endorsement into the governorship and then betraying him.

\u201cTrump releases attack ad on DeSantis on Truth Social\u201d
— TheBlaze (@TheBlaze) 1684966938

In an earlier post, he bashed the media while welcoming DeSantis to the race.

"I’d like to personally congratulate 'Rob' DeSanctimonious on finally announcing that he will be entering the race for President of the United States. Hopefully he will get the full experience of being attacked by the Marxists, Communists, and Radical Left Lunatics of our Country, without which he will never know the kind of job he is doing. These Lowlifes & Misfits are far worse than the leaders of hostile foreign countries. They must be soundly defeated in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he wrote.

Here's another of the Trump attack ads posted to Truth Social:

\u201cTrump releases second attack ad amidst DeSantis' presidential announcement.\u201d
— TheBlaze (@TheBlaze) 1684967667

DeSantis used his announcement to go after President Joe Biden and his Democratic policies instead.

"Our border is a disaster. Crime infests our cities. The federal government makes it harder for families to make ends meet," said DeSantis in his video.

"And the president flounders. But decline is a choice. Success is obtainable, and freedom is worth fighting for. Righting the ship requires restoring sanity to our society, normalcy to our communities, and integrity to our institutions," he continued.

"Truth must be our foundation," DeSantis added.

Trump also hit DeSantis on polling that showed that the former president had an enormous advantage in support over the field, although the Florida governor has the most support of the non-Trump candidates.

Here's more about the DeSantis 2024 announcement:

Ron DeSantis announces White House bid in glitchy Twitter event with Elon Musk www.youtube.com

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