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Gov. Ron DeSantis’ aides asked Trump affiliates if Saturday night’s occasion in Sarasota took a stand given the magnitude of the tragedy in Surfside.
By Annie Karni
Former President Donald J. Trump hosted a July 4 themed rally Saturday night in Sarasota, Florida, across the state since which a tragedy has been unfolding for more than a week as firefighters search for dogs and search for emergency survivors in the collapse of a residential building north of Miami Beach.
The political best friend in the midst of a disaster that horrified the country has a topic of discussion among aides to former President and Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, a best friend of Trump whose growing popularity among the former president’s supporters fits as a source of developing tension for either men , according to other people familiar with his thinking.
After gov. officials tested the condo cave site in Surfside, Florida, Adrian Lukis, the governor’s staff leader, called Michael Glassner, a longtime Trump aide who oversees the occasion in Florida, according to others familiar with the discussion. In a brief conversation, Lukis asked if the former president planned to continue with the occasion given the magnitude of the tragedy, two other people said.
He said there were no plans to reschedule.
A Trump spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, said the rally in Sarasota was “three and a half hours away, about the same distance from Boston in New York, and will have no effect on recovery efforts. “
He added that the former president “asked his team to gather help for surfer families either online or at the Sarasota rally. “
After a brief moment of silence for the victims and families of the tragedy as he took the stage, Trump temporarily embarked on a denunciation of the Biden administration’s cancel culture and immigration policies.
This week he downplayed fees opposing his company, the Trump Organization, through the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as “negligence. “And while he seemed to deny any wisdom of any imaginable tax evasion about profits, he also seemed to know that profits had been made.
“You didn’t pay tax on the company car or apartment,” he said, adding: “Or the schooling of your grandchildren. I don’t even know, you have to put, do you know the answer to this?”
Much of what followed a familiar list of his complaints, however, drew an enthusiastic crowd that waited hours in torrential rain to hear him speak.
DeSantis, who met with President Biden on Thursday on his stopover at the site of the disaster, originally sought to attend the rally, but ultimately made the decision that he may not go. “He spoke with President Trump, who agreed that he did. it was the right decision, because the governor’s duty is to be in Surfside,” said his press secretary, Christina Pushaw, adding: “Governor DeSantis would have gone to the rally in general circumstances. . . “
In an interview with Newsmax ahead of the rally, Trump said he had told DeSantis to come. But at the rally, when he thanked local Republican leaders in Florida, he ably mentioned Desantis.
The governor, one of Trump’s early supporters, willing to minimize any perceived tension with the former president, who approved his crusade for governor in 2018 and could cause him a political headache if he opposed him.
“Gov. DeSantis is focusing on his duties as governor and the Surfside tragedy, and has never called for planned occasions in other parts of Florida, from the Stanley Cup finals to President Trump’s rally, to be canceled,” Pushaw said. reported that DeSantis had apparently asked Trump to stop his rally.
The recent verbal exchange between Lukis and Glassner isn’t the first time DeSantis has expressed reservations about Trump’s timing. Before the condo collapse, DeSantis’ workplace had informed trump’s team. That fall is a better time for a rally, given the risks of Florida’s hurricane season, two other people familiar with the verbal exchange said.
Trump ignored the suggestion. Blocked from Facebook and Twitter, Trump was eager for a media outlet to make his voice heard and tried to return to the rally stage, his aides said.
DeSantis is one of the leading Republican candidates for president in 2024 and may find himself in a political collision with the former president, who himself has hinted that he is contemplating a third exit for the White House.
People close to Trump said he was slightly suspicious of an alleged ally. He toasted with several aides and friends and asked them “what Ron is doing,” after hearing rumors in Mar-a-Lago that DeSantis had courted donors to Ask his advisers for their views on a Western conservative summit presidential vote for 2024 Republican presidential candidates, an online vote with no scientific basis showing DeSantis was beating Trump.
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