The political action committee (PAC) Never Back Down, which supports Governor Ron DeSantis (R) for President, has launched a second punch against former President Donald Trump on Sunday, after calling him a "gun-grabber" on Saturday.
Titled "Fight Democrats, Not Republicans," the ad questions why Trump is investing so heavily in attacking Gov. DeSantis when he is simultaneously fighting the indictment by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
"Donald Trump is being attacked by a Democrat prosecutor in New York, so why is he spending millions attacking the Republican Governor of Florida?" the ad begins.
The ad accuses him of "stealing pages from the Biden-Pelosi playbook, repeating lies about Social Security," in reference to the anti-DeSantis "Pudding Fingers" ad, which referred to his voting in favor of cutting Social Security and Medicare while in Congress.
DeSantis has since distanced himself from his previous positions, saying in March that "we're not going to mess with Social Security as Republicans," which the ad quoted.
"So what did Trump say?" the ad questions, followed by a clip of the former President at the World Economic Forum in 2020.
The clip features Joe Kernen asking Trump if entitlements such as Social Security "are on his plate, to which Trump answered, "At some point, they will be... we will take a look at that."
According to Slate (which was hardly defending Trump), his answer seemed to suggest he was indeed considering cuts to Medicare due to the state of the economy at the time, yet framed this as "eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse" in a statement to the Washington Post.
"President Trump is keeping his commitment to the most vulnerable Americans especially those who depend on Medicare and Social Security. His budgets have proposed more savings to mandatory programs than any President in history, including lowering drug costs, eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, and getting people off welfare and back to work," the statement said.
"Trump should fight Democrats, not lie about Governor DeSantis. What happened to Donald Trump?" the ad concludes.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung spoke with Mediaite in response, accusing DeSantis of "colluding with his globalist handlers to go full Never Trump in order to gaslight the people into thinking that Medicare and Social Security should be ripped away from hard-working Americans."
"DeSantis is colluding with his globalist handlers to go full Never Trump in order to gaslight the people into thinking that Medicare and Social Security should be ripped away from hard-working Americans. President Trump has made it clear that he will always stand on the side of Americans, and protect benefits seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives," said Cheung.
While Trump may have recently received an endorsement from Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), there is still plenty of time for fortunes to change.
