Trump, Conservatives Praise DeSantis After He Bows Out Of 2024 Race

 Former President Donald Trump and a number of conservatives praised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Sunday after he announced that he was suspending his campaign for president and endorsing the former president.

Polling experts noted that the race permanently shifted in early 2023 when the former president was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as a large number of Republicans rallied around the former president, giving him a significant lead over DeSantis, who maintained his second place position after entering the race, and others.

In bowing out, DeSantis said that Trump was superior to President Joe Biden and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who he said represented “a repackaged form of warmed over corporatism.”

Speaking to supporters in New Hampshire on Sunday night, Trump said, “Before we begin, I’d like to take time to congratulate Ron DeSantis and, of course, a really terrific person who I’ve gotten to know, his wife Casey, for having run a great campaign for president.”

“He did. He ran a really good campaign. I will tell you, it’s not easy,” he continued. “They think it’s easy doing this stuff, right? It’s not easy. But as you know, he left the campaign trail today at 3pm. And in so doing, he was very gracious and he endorsed me, so I appreciate it. I appreciate that. And I also look forward to working with Ron and everybody else to defeat crooked Joe Biden, we will have to get him out. He’s put our country at great peril, at great peril. So I just want to thank Ron and congratulate him on doing a very good job. It’s a tough situation. It’s a tough thing to do.”

Trump said separately that he would no longer mock DeSantis’ name by calling him “DeSanctimonious.”