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President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, appear to have rounded a corner.
The president brushed off their previous conflicts in July 2025 that stemmed from their rivalry in the 2024 election, and the two have since publicly appeared to chart a new course for their relationship as Florida backs Trump policies.
For example, DeSantis has endorsed several agenda items from the Trump administration, including embracing the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services has launched.
As a result, DeSantis’ state kicked off its “Healthy Florida First” initiative in January, an effort across the state to test for contaminants in food products that DeSantis said is in lockstep with the administration’s priorities.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis discusses the state’s budget proposal during a news conference at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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“Our ‘Healthy Florida First’ initiative promotes innovation, ensures accountability, and empowers Floridians to make the healthiest choices for their families. Transparency is vital to that mission,” DeSantis said in a statement Monday. “Today, First Lady Casey DeSantis, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, and I were proud to announce that Florida has expanded this initiative by evaluating other products marketed for children. Through these transparency efforts and our long-standing commitment to medical freedom, Florida is doing our part to help Make America Healthy Again.”
DeSantis and Trump’s relationship unraveled as DeSantis became a possible rival in the 2024 election, prompting Trump to claim that the Florida governor “desperately needs a personality transplant” after DeSantis officially announced his bid for the White House.
President Donald Trump talks with Gov. Ron DeSantis during a roundtable at “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
In June 2023, DeSantis said in an interview with “Good Morning New Hampshire” that Trump’s attacks were “juvenile,” and said that he believed a contributing factor to his loss in the 2020 election.
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But the two appeared to put the past behind them in 2025, where Trump reaffirmed that the two have a “lot of respect” for each other.
“You’re my friend and you’ll always be my friend,” Trump said to DeSantis during a trip to the Everglades, Florida, to open an immigration detention center in July 2025. “We may even have some skirmishes in the future, I doubt it. But we’ll always come back because we have blood that seems to match pretty well.”
DeSantis and Trump tour “Alligator Alcatraz” in Ochopee, Florida on July 1, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-ReynoldsAFP via Getty Images)
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The White House and DeSantis were contacted by Fox News Digital for comment.
While DeSantis can’t run again for governor in 2026 once his term limit expires, he has weighed in recently on the 2026 midterm elections, and told conservative commentator Mark Levin that he believed Democrats would seek to concoct a plan to impeach Trump, should Democrats regain control of the House.
“They will do whatever they can — including, probably, try to fabricate another impeachment — to be able to throw sand in the gears to prevent the president from being able to discharge the duties to which he was elected,” DeSantis said in an interview Tuesday on “The Mark Levin Show.”
