Former President Trump criticized the New York Post on Monday after the tabloid published what he called a "puff piece" on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that "in writer Salena Zito's Fake News 'puff piece' about DeSantis, which supposedly appeared in the dying New York Post, which is way down in readership just like Fox News is way down in ratings, why doesn't she mention that he wants to cut Social Security & Medicare, loves losers like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove, and it getting CLOBBERED in the polls by me."
Trump added, "DeSantis is a RINO who is trying to hide his past. I don't read the New York Post anymore. It has become Fake News, just like Fox & WSJ!" saying DeSantis is a "Republican in name only."
The extensive profile over the weekend featured photos of DeSantis fishing and playing baseball as a child and carried a headline citing a major talking point of the governor: "People Don't Want 'Agenda Being Shoved Down Their Throat'," The Hill reported.
The New York Post is one of several right-of-center media outlets that has increasingly turned against Trump while backing DeSantis in recent months. The day after DeSantis decisively won reelection in November, its headline blared, "DEFUTURE."
Days later, when Trump announced his candidacy for the White House in 2024, the Post buried the story on the kickoff event inside its print edition.
DeSantis is widely expected to make a run for the Republican nomination for president in 2024. Other than Trump, the only GOP candidate who has officially declared a run is Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.