Former President Donald Trump said "we'll handle that" when asked about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis possibly running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
A new Club for Growth poll released Tuesday showed that DeSantis might pose a bigger threat to President Joe Biden's reelection than Trump, who kicked off his campaign in November.
"Now I hear he [DeSantis] might want to run against me. So, we'll handle that the way I handle things," Trump said Monday on "The Water Pooler" podcast.
Neither DeSantis nor Biden has announced plans to run for the White House in 2024.
Trump indicated during the podcast that a DeSantis campaign would be a sign of disloyalty. Trump repeated his stance that his endorsement helped DeSantis win the 2018 gubernatorial election in Florida.
"I got him elected, pure and simple," said Trump, who in November called the governor "Ron DeSanctimonious."
Major Republican political donors already have thrown their support behind DeSantis if he decides to run.
Billionaire hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin told Politico in November that the U.S. would be "well-served" with DeSantis as president, saying "it's time" for Republicans "to move on" from Trump.
Blackstone Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman told Axios that he will not support Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
On the podcast, Trump also chided evangelical leaders who did not endorse him after he announced his 2024 campaign. He said they showed "a sign of disloyalty" after supporting him in 2016 and 2020.
"There's great disloyalty is the world of politics, and that's a sign of disloyalty," Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody. "...Nobody has ever done more for right-to-life than Donald Trump."
Trump added that he nominated three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade in June.