2024 Hopeful Ron DeSantis Unleashes on Trump, Florida Gov. Questions 'What Happened' to Ex-Prez and Says Campaign Is Going the 'Wrong Direction'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis railed against former president Donald Trump following his entry in the presidential race, RadarOnline.com has learned, criticizing Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and more after months of evading comments made by his rival for the GOP nomination.

"It seems like he's running to the left and I have always been somebody that's just been moored in conservative principles," DeSantis said while chatting with radio host Matt Murphy in an interview Thursday.

"So these will be interesting debates to have, but I can tell you, you don't win nationally by moving to the left, you win nationally by standing for bold policy. We showed that in Florida," he added. "I never watered down anything I did."

DeSantis accused his foe of taking a hard turn with his leadership during his media blitz just days after Trump's recent attacks on his botched Twitter announcement with Elon Musk.

"I don't know what happened to Donald Trump; this is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 and 2016," DeSantis stated. "I think the direction that he's going with his campaign is the wrong direction."

"At the end of the day, he is going left on a lot of the fiscal, he's going left on culture," said the 2024 hopeful. "He's even sided with Disney against me."

The politician also blasted Trump's response to the pandemic, particularly "when he turned the country over to [Anthony] Fauci in March of 2020 that destroyed millions of people's lives."

DeSantis hinted that if he wins the race, he might pardon Trump if the 45th commander-in-chief is charged with a crime related to the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

As he spoke out about a number of topics on Thursday, the governor predicted that his wife, Casey, wouldn't receive the same star treatment in the limelight because she is conservative.

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"She's somebody that people look up to," he claimed, adding how grateful he is to have Casey by his side. "Not just women, although many of the women in Florida who have gone through breast cancer look at her as a role model for how she handled it."

"She's made huge improvements to communities in Florida by helping underprivileged people," Desantis continued. "And she believes in the values of the country and she can articulate that in a way that people really get excited about."