During an interview on American Family Radio Tuesday morning, the former president responded to interest building among Republicans for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to run for president:
"I never told DeSantis to stay out [of the 2024 race]. He's got to do what he's got to do. I just let people know, because I believe in loyalty, that he was like at 3% [when he first ran for governor in 2018] – he was dead in politics; he was never going to be in office, he was getting ready to leave the race and he came over asked whether or not it would be possible for me to endorse him. And for whatever reason, I did endorse him and he ended up going up like a rocket ship and he won that [primary] election …. But I'm a very big believer in loyalty. Somebody gets you in [and] you sort of be loyal to that person."
The former president touched on several other topics, including "wokeness" and the environmental movement – things he says are becoming a religion:
"We have people [in the Biden administration] who don't know a thing about the environment. That's become a religion also – and it's a religion that's going to destroy our country with the windmills and all of the things that don't work and don't work well. They want to take your gasoline cars away. They want to take your mode of transportation. They want to give you 'all-electric'. It's crazy what's going on. We can't allow it. The word 'woke' is a big word because it means a lot of things to a lot of people, but it also means a lack of freedom of speech."
According to Trump, "every day" is April Fools' Day under the Biden administration:
"They want open borders; they should be closed. April Fools' Day. They don't want voter ID; you should have voter ID. April Fools' Day. Everything is like the opposite. They want you to have all-electric cars. They don't want you to have gas stoves. It's crazy what they're doing – and they're destroying this country, they're destroying it."
And as for those who may like what he did while in office but criticize him for being harsh at times:
"A lot of people say Oh, we'd love to have the Trump policy maybe, but with somebody nicer. I'm actually very nice – but you can't be too nice when you're trying to stop people from invading … and destroying your country."
The entire interview with AFR host Jenna Ellis can be heard on the American Family Radio podcast page.
