'I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious 'Meatball' Ron': Trump denies testing out new nickname for Florida governor

Donald Trump is denying coining a particularly offensive nickname for Florida’s Governor.

Overnight on Truth Social, the former President forcefully repudiated the “Meatball Ron” nickname for Ron DeSantis as “totally inappropriate,” in a post that nonetheless found other ways to insult his one-time political ally and endorsed candidate.

“I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious “Meatball” Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will. Even though FoxNews killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word ‘meatball’ as a moniker for Ron!”

Trump’s repudiation of the “Meatball Ron” sobriquet is actually his second pass at knocking down what he previously called “fake news” suggesting that he was looking to improve on the “Ron DeSanctimonious” moniker he coined last year.

In a post on his Truth Social account Monday, the former President tried to knock down a New York Times story that accused him of calling the Florida Governor “Meatball Ron” and “Shutdown Ron” in private.

“All of the Fake News is reporting that I spend large amounts of my time coming up with a good ‘nickname’ for Ron DeSanctimonious, who is obviously going to give the presidential ‘thing’ a shot. They are all 100% wrong, I don’t even think about it — A very unimportant subject to me!!!”

The claim repudiated twice now from reporters Maggie Haberman and Michael Bender was that Trump “has insulted DeSantis in casual conversations, describing him as ‘Meatball Ron,’ an apparent dig at his appearance, or ‘Shutdown Ron,’ a reference to restrictions the governor put in place at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.”

DeSantis has yet to offer any responses to Trump’s provocations that match the former President’s stinging vitriol, attempting to take the high road.

“I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden. That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans,” the Governor told a crowd in Ocala earlier this month.

This article was first published at Florida Politics.