President Trump has made it clear that he's not worried about being challenged in a primary by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the 2024 election. In an interview with Real America’s Voice’s “The Water Cooler” podcast, Trump expressed his belief that he could handle any potential challenge, saying “I hear he might want to run against me, so we’ll handle that the way I handle things.” The former president also noted that his endorsement played a key role in DeSantis' success in the 2018 Republican primary and eventual victory as governor.
Trump mentioned that DeSantis' support was at a mere 3% when he first endorsed him in December 2017, before he had even officially entered the race and was trailing behind former congressman Adam Putnam. Despite this early support, Trump has been seen recently criticizing DeSantis multiple times after the last midterms, even going as far as calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious".
Despite these attacks though, DeSantis still managed to pull off a landslide victory over Democrat Charlie Crist in November's election which gave Republicans a ray of hope amid an otherwise disappointing midterm cycle. Regarding Trump's recent comments, DeSantis simply said "All of that is just noise" and directed people to look at results from last Tuesday night instead.
Recent polls have indicated that DeSantis leads Trump in a hypothetical primary and also comes out ahead of Joe Biden should they face each other in a general election matchup, although this same poll showed President Trump losing to Biden by 8 points. Thus, despite all the speculation surrounding both individuals' presidential ambitions for 2024, it remains unclear who will end up making their own respective bids for the White House and who will ultimately prevail should someone succeed in doing so.
In either scenario, having either Trump or DeSantis in the White House would be a good thing.