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Mary Trump, the niece of former President Donald Trump and one of his toughest critics, said on Friday that her uncle "hates" fellow Republican Ron DeSantis.
During her podcast The Mary Trump Show, she was asked by one of her listeners about who she thinks her uncle would vote for in Florida's gubernatorial race in this year's midterm election.
Trump said that her uncle "definitely" will not vote for Democratic candidate Charlie Crist, the former governor of Florida who is running against incumbent DeSantis.
"But I also know he hates Ron DeSantis. So I would not be surprised if Donald didn't vote for anybody. Because, you know, he's a baby," she added.
DeSantis still maintains a lead in the polls over Crist, including in the latest aggregated polling results by FiveThirtyEight on Friday, which showed that the Republican is ahead with 53 percent of voter support compared to his Democratic opponent's 42.5 percent.
The Florida governor held a similar lead on Tuesday, according to the FiveThirtyEight database, however Crist's current percentage dropped from 42.9 percent of support on that day. DeSantis had a 14-point lead in another gubernatorial poll by the University of North Florida, which had a little over 600 respondents.
Trump recently announced that he will hold a rally in Florida on Sunday to back GOP Senator Marco Rubio, who is running against Democrat Val Demings. However, DeSantis, who was once considered to be a close ally of Trump's, will not be in attendance.
The Florida governor was not even aware of the event, according to Politico. One person close to him told the news outlet that Trump's rally for Rubio is like "an elbow to Ron's throat."
Questions about their once close ties come in light of ongoing speculation that they are both considering running for president in 2024 as the GOP nomination.
Michael Binder, a professor of political science at the University of North Florida, told Newsweek that Trump may have felt "betrayed" that DeSantis now appears to be distancing himself from the former president ahead of a potential rivalry to lead the GOP.
"It's pretty clear these two don't have a good personal relationship, and while a lot in politics is transactional, personal relationships do matter," Binder said last week. "Trump likely feels betrayed by a candidate he thinks isn't grateful enough for the 2018 support. DeSantis doesn't feel a lifetime of indebtedness is warranted for a single endorsement. And, they both know each of them are their biggest threat to the GOP nomination."
Earlier this year, the former president called reports of tensions between him and DeSantis "fake news."
Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump's and DeSantis' media offices for comment.
About the writer
Fatma Khaled is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, world ... Read more