The Trump team responded to the presidential candidacy of former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie, announced today, with a message warning that it will mean bad news for his current top challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"Ron DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling, and President Trump’s dominance over the Republican primary field has opened a mad rush to seize the mantle for runner-up," Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the PAC Make America Great Again Inc. said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Ron DeSantis is not ready for this moment, and Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis’ lunch."
The DeSantis campaign pointed Fox News Digital to a statement DeSantis made in an interview with KCCI-TV in Iowa last week where he said, "Regardless of who decides to run or not run, for us, it's really just background noise."
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"We believe we have a message that will win. We believe we have the plan to be able to get that done and it's basically just about execution for us."
Christie, who served as governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018, previously ran for president in 2016 and lost the GOP primary to Trump.
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"I don’t know why people are doing it," Trump told Sean Hannity during a town hall last week about other candidates joining the race despite his lead in the polls. "They’re at one percent. Some are at zero."
Trump currently holds a significant lead on DeSantis, who sits in second place, in Republican primary polls. DeSantis announced only last month, well after Trump, and has begun campaigning in places like Iowa and New Hampshire.
