Trump votes for DeSantis as his team tells governor to ‘stay in Florida’

“Just stay where you are. You are doing a great job in Florida,” Mr Trump’s lawyer told the governor this week

Former President Donald Trump voted for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s reelection even as Mr Trump’s team has told Mr DeSantis to “stay” in the state as the two men begin to fight for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

“Yes, I did,” Mr Trump said when asked if he voted for Mr DeSantis as the former president left his polling place in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba was speaking on Right Side Broadcasting, a YouTube channel that typically provides live coverage of Mr Trump’s various events, when she flatly insisted that the Florida governor needed to “stay in Florida” and not challenge Mr Trump for the 2024 nomination.

“He needs to stay in Florida,” she warned. “Just stay where you are. You are doing a great job in Florida.”

Of the governor’s assumed nationally-minded ambitions, she added: “Don’t jump the gun. He’s not ready yet.”

Mr DeSantis is widely regarded as the Republican most likely to present a real challenge to Mr Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, given that all available polling indicates that he is the only nationally-prominent GOPer to even register double-digit levels of support in such a hypothetical matchup.

Questions of hypothetical matchups are becoming more and more relevant to reality as the midterms pass and eyes turn to the next election cycle the GOP’s much-anticipated battle to see who will have the opportunity to challenge Joe Biden or whoever is the Democratic nominee should the president decline to run.

Mr Trump hinted on Tuesday that he may announce his expected 2024 campaign on 15 November – a week after election day.

“I think Tuesday will be a very exciting day for a lot of people and I look forward to seeing you at Mar-a-Lago,” he told reporters outside his polling station, according to The Hill.

At a recent rally appearance, the former president referred to Mr DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” a quip that served to ignite speculation that the 2024 primary was unofficially on and enraged the governor’s camp.

Allies of the Florida Republican had already sounded off about their discontent towards Donald Trump in interviews with Politico after Mr Trump announced a rally in Miami, Florida, without consulting the governor.

Mr DeSantis ended up not attending, though Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio did.

Mr Trump did offer an olive branch to the governor at that Miami rally on Sunday, however, urging the attendees to vote for Mr DeSantis’s reelection bid.

CBS Miami asked Mr Trump what he meant by the nickname for Mr DeSantis and if he thought the governor had been ungrateful towards him.

“Well, let’s see what happens,” Mr Trump said. “But in the meantime, we hope he gets elected. And you know, I’ve always had a very good relationship with him. But let’s see what happens.”