Former President Donald Trump (R) tried to downplay Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ (R) dominant election victory on Tuesday night, claiming that his victory in 2020 in Florida was more impressive than DeSantis’ victory last night, even though facts do not support that notion.
“Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million?” Trump said on social media. “Just asking?”
It impossible to compare the turnout for midterm elections to the turnout for presidential elections because the turnout for presidential elections is always higher. What can be compared, though, is the margin of victory.
In 2020, Trump won the state by 3.3 points or 371,686 votes. DeSantis won the state last night by 19.4 points or 1,507,081 votes
DeSantis won 62 of Florida’s 67 counties, including 59 counties by double digits. DeSantis won Miami-Dade County, the largest county in the state and a Democrat stronghold, by 11 points. He won Palm Beach County, the third largest county in the state and another Democrat stronghold, by three points.
In an interview with NewsNation, Trump said that DeSantis should be more gracious to him because Trump won him his primary race for governor.
“I got him the nomination. He didn’t get it. I got it,” Trump barked. “And I thought that he could have been more gracious, but that’s up to him.”
Trump repeatedly attacked the Florida governor in the days leading up to the election and even celebrated when a Republican candidate lost in a key U.S. Senate race that could end up determining which party controls the U.S. Senate.
In the same interview with NewsNation, Trump said that he should be given all the credit for Republicans candidates who won their races in the midterm elections and that he should not be blamed at all if they lost.
“Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit. And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all, okay?” Trump said. “But it’ll probably be just the opposite. When they win, I think they’re going to do very well, I’ll probably be given very little credit even though in many cases I told people to run and they ran and they turned out to be very good candidates.”
Related: Trump Boasts Of ‘Big Victory’ For His Candidates. He’s Leaving Something Out.
Montel Williams speaks during a news conference in support of legislation that would make Maryland the 16th state to legalize medical marijuana at the House Office Building on January 24, 2011 in Annapolis, Maryland. (Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images)