Trump team trolls DeSantis with debate bingo card featuring 'pudding mention,' 'Dee-Santis,' and 'Duh-Santis'

• The Trump campaign has ramped up their trolling efforts against Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
• The former president's campaign at a dinner in Milwaukee passed out bingo cards mocking DeSantis.

Ahead of the first Republican presidential debate, former President Donald Trump's campaign team is trolling Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida even as the ex-president is set to skip the high-stakes event.

With Trump far ahead of his GOP competition in most national and statewide polling, he has openly poked at many of his adversaries, needling former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over his weight and butchering former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson's first name by calling him "Ada."

But the Trump campaign has reserved some of their consistent mockery for DeSantis, whose first gubernatorial bid in 2018 was heavily boosted by the then-president's highly coveted endorsement.

While hosting a group of political reporters at a steakhouse in Milwaukee, which will host the first debate, the Trump campaign handed out pudding snack packs, a reference to an article written by The Daily Beast's Jake Lahut and Zachary Petrizzo where DeSantis was said by two sources to have eaten a chocolate pudding dessert with three of his fingers. (The governor said he didn't recall such an incident.)

Debate bingo cards were also distributed at the steakhouse as part of the Trump team's continued efforts to maintain the former president's dominance as the GOP presidential frontrunner. Some of the words and phrases on the bingo cards included: "Dismisses poll," "Ron defends slavery," "Gaslight covid record," and "nervous laugh."

In Trump's efforts to poke at the different pronunciations of DeSantis' last name, the cards also included both "Dee-Santis" and "Duh-Santis."

When DeSantis was asked by a reporter in June about his surname, he quickly brushed off the question.

"It's ridiculous. These stupid things. Listen, the way to pronounce my last name – winner," the governor said at a New Hampshire campaign event in when asked about the correct pronunciation.

After Trump mocked DeSantis over the issue earlier this summer, DeSantis lashed out at the former president, calling him "petty" and "juvenile."

DeSantis campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin on Wednesday brushed off the Trump campaign team's actions by tying them to the political establishment in Washington, DC.

"It's DeSantis vs. the establishment, media, & left — again. He stood against them all during COVID. He'll do it again in this race, and win," he tweeted.

DeSantis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo also took to social media to push back against the Trump team's Milwaukee taunts.

"More proof the entire establishment has their knives out for DeSantis. They know he's the only one who can beat Biden," he tweeted. "But no leader in the country has beaten back the establishment to deliver conservative victories more times than DeSantis. You'll hear more about it tonight."

DeSantis has also recently faced criticism from several prominent Black Republicans over Florida's new Black history education guidelines, which includes instruction about "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

The Florida governor has defended the guidelines but has been throttled over the issue by Vice President Kamala Harris.