(Daily Mail) Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Republicans and potential 2024 presidential election rivals by saying Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin couldn’t have won without his support.
The former president wrote on Friday morning that ‘Young Kin’ is a name that ‘sounds Chinese’ and that he helped him get the ‘MAGA vote’ in his victory over DemocratTerry McAuliffe in November 2021.
It comes after Trump laid into Ron DeSantis by calling him ‘average’ and claimed that he sent in the FBI to ‘stop ballot theft’ when he won the Florida Governor race in 2018.
‘Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me,’ he posted on Truth Social.
‘I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him – or he couldn’t have come close to winning. But he knows that, and admits it. Besides, having a hard time with the Dems in Virginia – But he’ll get it done!’
Trump, 76, endorsed Youngkin and helped him in a telephone rally, but he never appeared in the state to campaign.
Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, who backed Trump in 2020, on Thursday called him a ‘liability’ and said the candidates he did not endorse fared better in Tuesday’s election.
Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Republicans and potential 2024 presidential election rivals by saying Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin couldn’t have won without his support
Trump wrote on Truth Social: ‘I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him – or he couldn’t have come close to winning. But he knows that, and admits it. Besides, having a hard time with the Dems in Virginia – But he’ll get it done!’
The ex-president has been angered by the praise heaped on DeSantis, 44, after the ambitious Florida governor cruised to a second term on Tuesday, and secured his place as the Republican frontrunner for 2024.
Trump himself has been condemned for his role in the midterms, after many of the extreme election-denying candidates he backed failed to win their races.
As DeSantis’ popularity has grown, Trump has been at pains to point out that he campaigned heavily for DeSantis in 2018, when he was running for governor for the first time.
On Thursday, the former president went even further and claimed that he swung the election for DeSantis, whose race against Democrat Andrew Gillum went to a machine recount.
‘I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win,’ said Trump.
‘I stopped his Election from being stolen…’
DeSantis has not commented on the allegation, and the FBI, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Broward County have not responded to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Trump’s press secretary, Taylor Budowich, did not respond when DailyMail.com asked if the former president wished to clarify his remarks.
Trump, 76, endorsed Youngkin and helped him in a telephone rally, but he never appeared in the state to campaign. Youngkin is pictured on the night of his election victory with wife Suzanne (right) and Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears (left)
DeSantis’ 2018 election victory has not been contested, until now.
Trump on Thursday insisted DeSantis owed his success to him.
‘Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017 – he was politically dead, losing in a landslide to a very good Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam, who was loaded up with cash and great poll numbers,’ Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social.
‘Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win.’
In the long-winded statement sent out by his PAC, Trump pointed out that the trio of News Corp media brands are ‘all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious’ who he called ‘an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations.’
Trump also downplayed DeSantis’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which polls suggest won him support.
The former president said the Florida governor didn’t have to shut his state down during the coronavirus pandemic because of the ‘SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was, just like I did!’
Trump is seen campaigning for DeSantis in Pensacola, Florida, on November 3, 2018 – three days before the vote
Trump flew DeSantis and his wife Casey, and Senate candidate Rick Scott, to the Pensacola rally on Air Force One on November 3, 2018
