Newsdata · Florida Politics

MAGA feud explodes as Trump ally accuses Ron DeSantis of sabotaging president's pick

A long-simmering rift inside Florida's Republican Party erupted into open warfare on Friday, as far-right activist Laura Loomer unleashed a barrage of social media posts accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of recruiting a fringe candidate to sabotage Trump-endorsed Rep. Byron Donalds. In a series of posts on X , Loomer trained her fire on James Fishback, a 30-year-old investor running in the GOP gubernatorial primary, and on former DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw. She accused the governor's team of working with figures she labeled "Neo Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood" to undermine the race. "Ron DeSantis recruited James Fishback to run for Governor of Florida after Donald Trump refused to endorse DeSantis's wife," Loomer wrote, claiming the governor is "allergic to getting a real job and wants to have a taxpayer funded salary for the rest of his life." Trump endorsed Donalds last year and reaffirmed that backing last month. DeSantis has pointedly declined to get behind Donalds and has floated his wife, Casey DeSantis , as a possible successor. Loomer also alleged in a separate post that Pushaw, whom she described as Fishback's former girlfriend, helped engineer the candidacy at DeSantis's direction. Pushaw told NBC News last month that she is not working for Fishback's campaign, calling the reporting "simply not accurate." The broadside came hours after DeSantis publicly criticized the Florida GOP for keeping Fishback off the stage at a June 27 sanctioned debate. Only Donalds met the party's polling and fundraising thresholds. "It's counterproductive when you try to engineer an outcome," the governor said. Loomer pounced on the line, noting that DeSantis himself signed legislation in 2023 tweaking Florida's "Resign to Run" law to clear the way for his own failed presidential bid against Trump. "Ron DeSantis is the biggest piece of s--- in Florida," Loomer raged. Fishback, who has called Donalds a "slave" to his donors and praised followers of white nationalist Nick Fuentes as "impressive," trails Donalds badly in polling. A Republican Party of Florida survey this month put Donalds at 38.8% and Fishback at 4.1%.