Trump dubs DeSantis 2024 launch ‘DISASTER’ and crack bizarre joke about ‘red button’ and ‘friend’ Kim Jong-un

The one-term president took to Truth Social to poke fun at the Florida governor over chaotic event

Graeme Massie

Los Angeles

Thursday 25 May 2023 00:57 BST

Comments

Listen: Ron DeSantis's presidential launch suffers major technical issues

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Donald Trump mocked the disastrous Twitter Spaces launch of Ron DeSantis’s bid for the White House as he made a bizarre joke about Kim Jong-un.

“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!” he wrote on Truth Social.

The Florida governor’s campaign launch descended into chaos as Twitter crashed immediately while he tried to present his candidacy to Elon Musk.

“Rob,” My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!)” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Mr Trump tweeted in January 2018 that the “nuclear button” in Washington DC was “much bigger and more powerful” than the North Korean dictator’s “and my button works!”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of the one-term president, took to Twitter to ridicule his father’s main rival for the GOP presidential nomination, branding the campaign launch a “DeSaster.”

“DeSantis is making JEB! look high energy right now,” he added, in a reference to the doomed 2016 Republican campaign of Jeb Bush.

The former president then posted two videos to Truth Social mocking Mr DeSantis. The first showed a Tesla rocket with “Ron” written over it crashing, while the second mixed clips of the chaotic twitter event with Mr Trump’s own campaign launch.

The Twitter event, which began at 6pm ET, was plunged into chaos when it was hit by tech issues and dropped audio almost immediately.

David Sacks, one of the moderators of the event, said the massive number of participants was “melting the servers”.

Despite the mockery he has received for the event, Mr DeSantis told Mr Musk as it ended: “We should do it again.”

Earlier he laid out why he was running for president, before mostly talking about right-wing culture war issues beloved by many of his supporters.

“I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” Mr DeSantis said.

“American decline is not inevitable. It is a choice,” he said. “And we should choose a new direction, a path that will lead to American revitalization.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies