During a press conference on Saturday, President Donald Trump refused to use the nickname “Meatball Ron” to describe Ron DeSantis, a rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Using the word ‘meatball’ as a moniker, which has been described as a reference to DeSantis’ appearance and connotations to his Italian heritage, would be “inappropriate,” he said.
According to the New York Times, Trump has used the term in casual conversations and has called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “Shutdown Ron” for the restrictions he put in place during the Coronavirus pandemic.
He has since launched multiple attacks on DeSantis, calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious” and accusing him of playing games by not formally announcing his presidential bid for 2024.
As well as reposting a message on social media earlier this month, Trump implied that DeSantis groomed teenage girls. According to DeSantis, he does not “spend his time trying to smear other Republicans.” Trump wrote in his early morning post leveling various attacks on DeSantis, “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News insists I will.”
As a famous nicknamer, Trump used “Low Energy” Jeb Bush in his post, reprising the moniker he used to describe the former Florida governor during his 2016 campaign for the Republican nomination.
