Former President Donald Trump mocked Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) over Twitter’s technical difficulties during his presidential campaign launch on the platform.
DeSantis’s Twitter Space with CEO Elon Musk started with extreme technical difficulties as the audio cut out repeatedly. They ultimately had to begin a new Twitter Space after several minutes of complications.
Trump just shared this video mocking the DeSantis 2024 launch event.pic.twitter.com/bYFMpLhOxf
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 24, 2023
Trump took to his own platform, Truth Social, and shared a video, contrasting the Twitter Space glitches to his own campaign announcement at Mar-a-Lago in November before a room full of supporters and media.
He posted a second video mocking the launch:
FAILURE TO LAUNCH. pic.twitter.com/6IMDQQHSX3
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) May 24, 2023
The videos followed another post in which Trump dubbed DeSantis “Rob” and touted that his social media platform, or his “Red Button,” was superior to DeSantis’s.
“‘Rob,’ My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!),” the 45th president wrote.
DeSantis filed his paperwork to run for president with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) ahead of the Twitter Space. He also released an advertisement in which he touts a vision “to lead our Great American Comeback.”
I’m running for president to lead our Great American Comeback. pic.twitter.com/YmkWkLaVDg
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) May 24, 2023
The announcement came as a pair of polls showed Trump leading DeSantis and the rest of the Republican primary field by a wide margin on Wednesday. A Quinnipiac University found Trump leading the pack with 56 percent of support, while DeSantis sat in second with 25 percent. Similarly, a CNN-commissioned SSRS poll found Trump at 53 percent and DeSantis at 26 percent, while no one else eclipsed double digits.