When President Trump made his comments Saturday saying he was going to be arrested on Tuesday and calling for protests in response, there was all sorts of reactions. One of the most curious reactions came from some of the former president’s supporters who were suddenly demanding that Gov. Ron DeSantis weigh in on the situation on Trump’s side.

Immediately after the former president predicted on Saturday that his arrest was imminent, Mr. Trump’s operatives and friendly media outlets began publicly pressuring Mr. DeSantis to condemn the law enforcement officials in New York, portraying his silence on the matter as bordering on treason.

Jason Miller, the former president’s senior adviser, said on Twitter that the Trump team was taking note of Mr. DeSantis’s “radio silence” about the likely indictment.

And the Trump campaign’s “War Room” account posted on Sunday: “It has been over 24 hours and some people are still quiet. History will judge their silence.”

Lots of stuff like this:

Pay attention to which Republicans spoke out against this corrupt BS immediately and who sat on their hands and waited to see which way the wind was blowing. https://t.co/WJMq2528Gs

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 19, 2023

These attacks aren’t surprising. Trump has been attacking “Ron DeSanctimonious” repeatedly for the past several weeks.

On Monday, Trump took to his social media company, Truth Social, to deny a Sunday report in The New York Times that said Trump has been workshopping nicknames for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and asking his team for damning material.

“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,” Trump wrote. “They are all 100% wrong, I don’t even think about it — A very unimportant subject to me!!!”

The nicknames, shared by anonymous sources to the New York Times, included “Meatball Ron” and “Shutdown Ron,” a reference to the governor shutting down Florida at the start of the pandemic.

For the most part, DeSantis has had the same response every time Trump lashes out at him: Silence followed by some reaction a few days later indicating that he has more important things to do. For instance, back in February Trump circulated a photo of DeSantis with some private school kids. The next day, DeSantis was asked about it and replied, “I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden; that’s how I spend my time.” He added, “I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”

So if you’ve been watching this dynamic play out, you knew something like this was coming in response to the demands that DeSantis take a position defending Trump. Today it arrived when DeSantis was asked about the situation at a press conference.

“The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis said. He continued, “He has downgraded over 50 percent of felonies to misdemeanors. He says he doesn’t even want to have jail time for the vast, vast majority of crimes.”

But then DeSantis turned his fire on Trump. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair, I can’t speak to that,” he said to some chuckles from the assembled crowd.

He then went back to attacking DA Bragg for ignoring current crimes and going back “many, many years ago” to bring a misdemeanor charge involving the former president. “That’s an example of pursuing a political agenda,” DeSantis said. This is broken up into two clips. In the second clip he calls the charges a “manufactured circus” and a “political spectacle.”

DeSantis adds: "We won’t be involved in this. I have no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA…He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in FL." pic.twitter.com/PDbJKEDvea

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 20, 2023

Of course this will not end the criticism of “Ron DeSanctimonious” coming from Trump world. Trump’s supporters will proclaim this a big win for their guy but I honestly don’t see it. DeSantis didn’t get angry. He addressed the issue directly. He also backhanded Trump pretty effectively without sounding, dare I say it, sanctimonious. That’s probably the best anyone can do in this kind of mud-throwing competition.

Meanwhile in Manhattan…

Steel barricades arriving outside Manhattan Criminal Court @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/aWESUZ01fU

— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 20, 2023

Update: MAGA War Room is tweeting out the last bit of DeSantis’ statement, conveniently leaving out the part where he clearly called this a political prosecution (and hit Trump for paying hush money to a porn star).

Ron DeSantis doesn't think the weaponization of our legal system is an "issue that actually matters to people." pic.twitter.com/xlRGgneHkC

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) March 20, 2023

Also, Trump tweeted a response and then deleted it.

Trump fires back at DeSantis with some homophobia pic.twitter.com/oSNLDssCVy

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 20, 2023

Lmfao Trump posted this and then deleted it. pic.twitter.com/mtngs3rybE

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 20, 2023

Update: So Trump did delete the statement above but only so he could revise it to now include an insinuation about underage girls.

An impressive contest of ideas pic.twitter.com/WRZIcPz0WH

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 20, 2023