- DeSantis says he "doesn't know how to spell" Trump's nickname for him, Ron DeSanctimonious.
- "I don't really know what it means," DeSantis told Piers Morgan.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he doesn't really know what former President Donald Trump's nickname for him, "Ron DeSanctimonious," means.
"I don't know how to spell the sanctimonious one," DeSantis told conservative show host Piers Morgan in an interview slated to air on Thursday on "Piers Morgan Uncensored." On Tuesday, Morgan published a story in the New York Post where he described snippets of his conversation with DeSantis.
"I don't really know what it means, but I kinda like it, it's long, it's got a lot of vowels. We'll go with that, that's fine," DeSantis said, per Morgan's article.
DeSantis added that Trump is welcome to give him rude nicknames.
"I mean you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner," DeSantis told Morgan. "Because that's what we've been able to do in Florida is put a lot of points on the board and really take this State to the next level."
DeSantis said he views Trump's attacks on him as "background noise," Morgan wrote in the Post article.
"It's not important for me to be fighting with people on social media. It's not accomplishing anything for the people I represent," DeSantis told Morgan, adding that he doesn't want to get "involved in all the under tow."
Trump debuted "Ron DeSanctimonious," his first nickname for the governor, at a rally in Pennsylvania in November. He's also called DeSantis a "RINO globalist," a nickname with roots in an alt-right, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about a cabal of evil global elites.
Trump's also tried out other nicknames for DeSantis in his Truth Social posts, including "Ron DeSanctus."
And that's not it.
The New York Times reported on February 12 that Trump was considering the nickname "Meatball Ron" for DeSantis. And Bloomberg reported in March that Trump is workshopping nicknames like "Tiny D," "Ron DisHonest," and "RonDeEstablishment."
The Trump-DeSantis rift has been ramping up. Trump has continually attacked DeSantis, his main GOP rival, though DeSantis has not yet announced a competing 2024 presidential bid. In the last four months, Trump has branded DeSantis "average," "very disloyal," and claimed without evidence that DeSantis cried in front of him while asking for an endorsement in 2018.
The Trump camp's attacks against DeSantis also escalated in March, when MAGA Inc., a Trump super PAC, filed an ethics complaint against DeSantis, accusing him of reaping "personal financial gain" from his "lucrative book tour."
DeSantis has thus far held back from giving Trump similar nicknames and refrained from insulting Trump, sticking instead to veiled insults and jabs. In November, he also told people to "chill out" about a possible GOP civil war between him and Trump.
Representatives for DeSantis and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment outside regular business hours.