‘Rude awakening’: Trump world belittles former staffers who jumped ship to back DeSantis ahead of 2024

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Trump widens lead over DeSantis ahead of 2024, Fox poll shows

'Fox & Friends' hosts weigh in after a new Fox poll of Republican primary voters showed former President Trump with a massive lead over Florida Gov. DeSantis, who has not yet announced his 2024 candidacy.

In the increasingly bitter battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination that is currently dominated by declared candidate and former President Trump and likely contender Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, there is a new player on the field.

With Trump, who views DeSantis as his chief rival for the nomination as he runs a third time for the White House, ramping up attacks on the Florida governor as his own legal troubles have mounted amid looming indictments, a recently formed DeSantis-aligned super PAC is returning fire.

The committee, called the Never Back Down PAC, this week went up with a video titled "Waco Crickets" which highlighted media reports indicating the loud and boisterous crowd at the Trump rally this past weekend in Waco, Texas, turned mostly quiet when the former presidential repeatedly attacked the Florida governor. 

The video, which was shared first with Fox News, was the first shot by Never Back Down toward Trump. Multiple sources say that the super PAC has the tacit blessing of the Florida governor, who while currently sitting on the 2024 sidelines is expected to launch a presidential campaign later this year.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a campaign event Friday, March 10, 2023, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ron Johnson)

What makes the storyline more fascinating and complicated is that the super PAC is staffing up with a slew of heavyweights from the political operative class, some of whom are Trump campaign or White House veterans.

Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and the 2013 GOP gubernatorial nominee who later served as acting deputy homeland security director during the last two years of Trump administration, is chairing the super PAC.

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Two veterans of Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, Erin Perrine and Matt Wolking, have joined Never Back Down over the past week in top communications positions.

Trump loyalists from the former president's political orbit belittled the new hires in the pro-DeSantis PAC.

Former President Trump speaks at a campaign event Monday, March 13, 2023, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ron Johnson)

"They’re basically getting the people from 2020 who lost the campaign, whereas our campaign has people from 2016 who won the campaign," said a political operative in Trump’s political world who asked for anonymity to speak more freely.

Another strategist in Trump’s orbit, who also asked to remain anonymous, said "I think they’re going to be in for a rude awakening."

When asked by Fox News for his reaction to the growing list of former Trump administration officials and campaign aides joining the super PAC, Trump 2024 campaign spokesman Steven Cheung answered: "Who?"

But Trump - in tweets sent during the 2020 cycle - congratulated or praised both Perrine and Wolking.

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Cuccinelli shared in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this month that he gave Trump a heads-up he was going to chair the new pro-DeSantis super PAC.

"We texted back-and-forth. He texted me the night before we announced it, which tells me that wasn’t likely a coincidence. It was friendly, and I was very forthright with him about what I was doing and why in simple terms," Cuccinelli said.

But he added, "I haven’t heard since then" from Trump.

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Wolking, who steered the Trump 2020 campaign’s rapid response and war room teams, explained his move in a tweet, saying that "Trump was the president we needed 8 years ago, but to make America great again, our movement needs a disciplined leader who wins instead of loses, never backs down, fights smart, and puts the mission before himself. On each count, Governor Ron DeSantis is the strongest choice."

Perrine, Trump 2020 director of press communications, told Fox News "the policies pursued by President Trump were worthy of four more years at the time, but after losing the White House, and House and Senate races since then, it’s time for change."

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"Governor Ron DeSantis never backs down from conservative principles. He has a record of success and a personal story of service that puts him heads and shoulders above anyone in the 2024 field. Governor DeSantis is the only person who can beat Donald Trump and beat Joe Biden to make sure Americans can again be unapologetic for our nation’s greatness and success," she emphasized.

The new super PAC connections expand beyond Trump world.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas speaks at a donor conference hosted by the conservative group the Club for Growth, on March 3, 2023 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Fox News )

Jeff Roe, a veteran GOP strategist who heads up the formidable Axiom Strategies, joined the Never Back Down PAC last week as a senior adviser. Roe, a longtime political adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, served as the top campaign consultant when the conservative firebrand senator fiercely battled Trump for the 2016 GOP nomination, ending up as runner-up to the former president.

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Chris Wilson, a veteran Republican pollster who served on the Cruz 2016 campaign, will lead Never Back Down’s data efforts.

While Cruz initially flirted with another White House run in 2024, he has made it clear since last autumn that he is running for re-election in the Senate next year.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks on behalf of GOP Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia at a Kemp re-election rally on Sept. 27, 2022 in Alpharetta, Georgia. (Fox News)

Roe is also a top political adviser to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Roe and Axiom Strategies were instrumental behind the scenes in Youngkin’s 2021 gubernatorial election victory, which helped transform the first-time candidate from the business wing of the GOP an instant Republican superstar. Wolking also worked on Youngkin’s 2021 campaign and Kristin Davison, another top Axiom consultant who also serves at a leading Youngkin adviser, has also joined Never Back Down.

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Pundits have viewed Youngkin as a potential contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, but the moves by Roe and Davidson in joining the super PAC have raised further doubts of the Virginia governor’s national ambitions.

Youngkin has repeatedly said that he’s hyper focused right now his duties steering Virginia and in hoping to win GOP control of the state Senate in this November’s elections. Additionally, those close to Youngkin say his former consultants' moves should not be taken as a sign of what the Virginia governor may (or may not) do in terms of the 2024 race.