Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is focusing on Donald Trump’s vulnerability in his bid to beat him for the GOP nomination for president — that he can only serve one term as former president if elected.
DeSantis, during his campaign stops this week in Iowa and New Hampshire, repeatedly emphasized that, unlike Trump and other candidates, he could serve two consecutive term and would therefore be better placed to implement longer-lasting changes.
Trump has responded by claiming he can achieve a similar set goals in a much shorter time. He countered by saying that “you wouldn’t want DeSantis as your president” if he was talking about eight years.
As NBC News reported in this year, Trump’s GOP opponents have been preparing to challenge him for months. Trump can only serve one more term after winning the election, as the Constitution does not allow a president to be elected twice.
DeSantis, speaking Thursday in New Hampshire on the need to overthrow the federal bureaucracy said: “You need to make sure that we have two terms of president to bring this to an end.”
He added, “You do one term and then they reverse it.” You can’t reverse it. “We can’t wait for the bureaucracy to do its job.”
His remarks on Wednesday in Iowa about changing federal employment dramatically were echoed in the comments.
He said that many people have spoken about taking action against the “administrative states.” “Nobody’s been able make a big difference.” It’s because you need an energetic, disciplined president who is willing to fight every day for eight long years.
He added: “This is not something that you can simply turn on and off.” If it were so simple, wouldn’t it? Some people would tell you “I will fix everything in one day.” This is not how it works. It’s really, really important, every day. It takes two terms to complete the task. “I think we could bring George Washington to life, but I don’t believe he could accomplish it in a single four-year term.”
Trump has noticed DeSantis’ swipes. In Iowa on Thursday, Trump said he would accomplish in “six months” what DeSantis could only do after two terms.
Trump said: “Every time I heard him say eight years, I winced. They say that if it’s going to take eight years for this situation to change, you don’t want Trump as your president.”
In a radio interview with Iowan conservative radio host Simon Conway Trump said: “I don’t need eight years.”
“I can do this so quickly, bringing down inflation, interest rates, and restoring the economy. He said that it would take six months to get the economy back on track. “When I heard him say he needed eight years – if he needed eight years to change it, you wouldn’t want him as president. I can tell that.
Some Republicans believe that Trump’s limited term will help rivals to boost their campaigns. DeSantis’ team had indicated that it would use Trump’s inability serve two terms to bolster its message before his launch last week.
This year, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House Chief of Staff for Trump, , said.
Trump’s allies have said that he can accomplish more in four years than anyone else in eight.
I think people want to be in office for a single term. An adviser to Trump stated this year that “I think we are just an impatient nation.” “I don’t think Trump will say that he wants to serve only one term. I think he will say, ‘I’m going to finish the unfinished work.’
DeSantis doesn’t seem to think so. DeSantis responded to NBC News Gabe Gutierrez’s question on Thursday about Trump’s claim that he could deliver similar promises DeSantis said would take longer to achieve.
Henry J. Gomez and Jonathan Allen, as well as Vaughn Hillyard, Natasha Korecki and Vaughn Hillyard, contributed.
