Washington, Jan 22 (IANS): Former US President Donald Trump has welcomed the decision of his arch-rival Florida Governor Ron Desantis dropping out of the presidential race.
This leaves only Nikki Haley in the race in New Hampshire, the 2nd early voting state.
Ron DeSantis dropped six points in NH and realised he had no chance against Trump and even Hakley was ahead of him, media reports said.
Trump's praise of DeSantis was only lukewarm as he described him as a man whom he proposed as Florida governor and became a rocket ship in 24 hours. He could never forget his disloyalty to him.
Trump’s familiar ritual is to welcome those who back him after taking him on earlier. The former president avoided mocking publicly Ron DeSantis as "DeSanctimonious" as he usually does, but chose to praise him instead, which was rather unusual.
“I just want to thank Ron and congratulate him on doing a very good job,” Trump said ending months of bitterness and rivalry with a man who was fancied to be his hereditary rival, minus his legal baggage.
Trump once again proved that he was the boss of GOP, that the GOP was Trump and Trump was GOP, showing his tremendous sway of the party and his supporters.
Praising DeSantis, Trump said, “He (DeSantis) was very gracious, and he endorsed me. I appreciate that, and I also look forward to working with Ron.” Trump described DeSantis as "a really terrific person.”
Dropping out after spending a fortune on his campaign trail against the mighty republican, DeSantis said via video that he would be ending his campaign two days before New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation GOP primary.
But Trump's glee Sunday night aside, it wasn't the warmest of endorsements, media reports said.
“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said, offering matter-of-fact analysis through a forced smile, without adding plaudits for Trump, ABC news quoted him as saying.
Trump showed little bother DeSantis' new approach, as he struck a tone of camaraderie as fellow political combatants. “I will tell you it's not easy,” Trump said Sunday night in Rochester. “They think it's easy doing this stuff, right? It's not easy.”