Trump mocked as pro-DeSantis banner flown over Mar-a-Lago before announcement

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis expected to be main challenger to one-term president for nomination

Donald Trump was mocked as a pro-Ron DeSantis banner reading “You lost again Donald!” was flown over Mar-a-Lago ahead of his expected presidential campaign announcement.

The banner also carried a “#DESANTIS2024” hashtag and circled over the former president’s Florida home on Tuesday afternoon.

The Florida governor is seen as the main rival to Mr Trump, who has now officially launched his 2024 bid, for the Republican presidential nomination to take on Joe Biden.

Mr Trump has recently attacked Mr DeSantis, who romped to victory in his own election race last week, and has been hailed by media titan Rupert Murdoch as the future of the GOP, rather than Mr Trump.

The Democratic National Committee, the party’s governing body, also drove a billboard around Mar-a-Lago stating that Mr Trump had lost the 2020 election to Mr Biden by more than 7m votes.

Following his re-election, Mr Trump called Mr DeSantis an “average” Republican and insisted that he owed all his political success to Mr Trump’s endorsement and support.

Meanwhile, Mr DeSantis, when asked about the criticism, said that Mr Trump should “look at the scoreboard” from the midterm elections, which he called “underwhelming” for the GOP.

“One of the things I’ve learned in this job is when you’re leading, when you’re getting things done, you take incoming fire, that’s just the nature of it,” said Mr DeSantis.

A string of Trump-endorsed candidates lost their races across the country last Tuesday.

“At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” added Mr DeSantis.