Newsmax’s top-rated host Greg Kelly warned Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday night: Don’t take on Donald Trump for president come 2024.
The declaration from the primetime star comes more than two years ahead of a 2024 general election and months ahead of the 2022 midterms, as behind the scenes, Republican Party lieutenants mull potential 2024 GOP presidential contenders.
“Governor Ron DeSantis. He is amazing, so talented, so smart, unlimited political future. I want him to be president someday,” Kelly began his Friday evening show as a graphic appeared on screen stating, ‘Not Yet, Ron.’ “I think that’s almost guaranteed to happen, but I’d rather not see him run in 2024.”
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The message from Kelly comes while Trumpworld remains unsure of precisely when a Trump 2024 campaign announcement might come. The New York Times reported Friday that Trump could announce his candidacy “unusually early,” and the news may come not at a rally but on social media.
Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2020.
Joe RaedleAfter airing a highlight reel of the Florida governor taking aim at reporters, Kelly heaped on the praise before cutting to the chase.
“Let’s face it, though, he’s borrowing heavily from Donald Trump style and agenda and policies, and that’s fine,” he said. “That’s totally fine, but I’m hearing from more and more Republicans. ‘Well, you know, Donald Trump has all that baggage, and it’s time for a fresh face.’ Don’t fall for that argument!”
Kelly then dug in, arguing that, unlike Trump, DeSantis could be considered a “career politician.”
“Let’s see, he’s forty-three now, on Election Day in November of 2024, he would be forty-five years old. Now, here’s the thing. That makes him, what, three decades younger then-President Trump. I'm not saying that’s a good thing, I’m saying he’s got plenty of time ahead of him to make his move, but not now, and there are some things he needs to clean up,” the primetime Newsmax host said. “Just a little bit.”
The Newsmax host added that in 2018, he believed DeSantis should have easily defeated then-Democratic candidate, Andrew Gillum. Yet, instead, he said DeSantis was “nervous” and “fidgety” during a debate.
“I think he [DeSantis] needs work on that,” he added.
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Further, Kelly chalked up DeSantis as a wannabe Trump clone.
“Obviously, he [DeSantis] has studied President Trump very, very carefully. You can kind of see it in this picture in Mar-a-Lago. I mean, they’re very similar, and I think DeSantis inhaled so much from Donald Trump,” Kelly said. “The agenda, the style, it is all Trump’s.”
“He [Trump] changed everything, changed everything, and I think he can change it again,” the host concluded. “Here’s an idea, although constitutionally it may be complicated, Trump [and] DeSantis, on the same ticket?”
Elsewhere in Trumpworld, longtime Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway has found her way back into the former president’s heart, despite the former president criticizing her publicly a month ago, as talks about 2024 increase.
“I have a very good relationship with Kellyanne,” Trump told The Daily Beast Friday evening.
