Addressing a town hall in Hollis, DeSantis vowed to actually build the US-Mexico border wall that Trump tried but failed to complete in his first term
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump traded barbs on Tuesday as the two leading Republican White House candidates staged duelling events in the critical early voting state of New Hampshire.
Addressing a town hall in Hollis, DeSantis vowed to actually build the US-Mexico border wall that Trump tried but failed to complete in his first term while pledging to tear down Washington’s traditional power centres in ways that Trump fell short.
Speaking later at a Republican women’s luncheon in the state capital of Concord, Trump countered that DeSantis was being forced to settle for second place in the primary and accused the governor of supporting cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs as a way to tame federal spending.
Beyond the rhetoric, the conflicting events demonstrated each candidate’s evolving strategy. DeSantis took extensive audience questions a trademark in New Hampshire politics that he eschewed during his previous visit to the state, drawing criticisms that he was stilted and overly scripted.
Trump, meanwhile, offered his traditional, free-wheeling speech for more than hour but didn’t take questions. Reporters covering the event were confined to a pen, chaperoned to the bathroom and told they could not speak to attendees in the conference centre ballroom or even in the hallways.
DeSantis, asked about people who had twice voted for Trump over his promises to drain the swamp, used his answer to draw some of his sharpest contrasts yet with the former president.
He didn’t drain it. It’s worse today than it’s ever been, DeSantis said. He added that such promises don’t go far enough because a subsequent president can just refill it.
I want to break the swamp, DeSantis said, pledging to take power out of the nation’s capital by instructing Cabinet agencies to halve the number of employees there.
Many leading Republicans remain fiercely loyal to Trump, but there is some evidence that the attacks against the former president are resonating. Speaking about Trump on Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said, Can he win that election? Yeah, he can win that election.
