DeSantis calls Trump supporters ‘listless vessels,’ drawing rebuke

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested that supporters of Donald Trump’s reelection are “listless vessels,” a comment that drew a quick demand for an apology by the former president’s camp.

“If all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow, you know, whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement,” DeSantis said in a taped interview with the conservative website The Florida Standard.

“Ultimately, a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual,” DeSantis continued. “The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people.”

Truth Social, a website founded by Trump, is where the ex-president posts on social media daily.

The comment, first reported Saturday by Florida Politics, drew a comparison to Hillary Clinton’s critical remarks about Trump supporters in 2016.

“To Hillary Clinton, Trump supporters are ‘deplorables,'” said Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Make America Great Again Inc. “To Ron DeSantis, they are ‘listless vessels.’ The truth is, Trump supporters are patriots. … DeSantis must immediately apologize for his disgraceful insult.”

DeSantis made perhaps his strongest criticism yet of Trump after the reporter for The Florida Standard asked him why Trump supporters accuse him of being a RINO, which stands for Republican in name only.

“We have a strain in our party that views supporting Trump as whether you are a RINO or not. And so you could be the most conservative person since sliced bread [and] unless you’re kissing his rear end, they will somehow call you a RINO,” DeSantis said.

Even Democrats took some sarcastic swings at DeSantis for the remark.

“In his latest reboot, Ron DeSantis attacks Trump supporters in the hopes of winning their support,” former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Heading into Wednesday’s first GOP presidential debate, the Florida governor’s campaign has struggled, even slipping into third place in some polling for the early GOP primary states. Trump, however, has reportedly decided he won’t take part in the debate.