A Pro-Donald Trump advertisement is using rumours that Ron DeSantis eats pudding with his fingers to attack the Florida Governor.
The ad, paid for by the Make America Great Again Inc PAC, launches a direct attack on Mr DeSantis by saying he has “dirty fingers” while featuring a man eating chocolate pudding with his fingers.
“Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong,” the advertisement says.
Throughout the video, headlines from publications criticising Mr DeSantis appear over the man eating pudding. The advertisement accuses Mr DeSantis of cutting Medicare, Social Security, and raising the retirement age.
“Tell Ron DeSantis to keep his pudding fingers off his money,” the advertisement says. “And oh, somebody get this man a spoon.”
The “pudding fingers” imagery and analogy is a reference to a rumour that started from a report from The Daily Beast that claimed Mr DeSantis struggles with social skills.
A former staffer for Mr DeSantis told The Daily Beast at the time that Mr DeSantis would, allegedly, often eat in front of people, even in meetings.
According to the staffer, Mr DeSantis enjoyed a chocolate pudding dessert by eating it with three of his fingers while on a private flight from Tallahassee to Washington DC.
After the report was published, people mocked Mr DeSantis for the supposed rumour.
Mr DeSantis denied any knowledge of pudding-gate while speaking with Piers Morgan in an interview on Fox Nation last month.
He said, “I don’t remember ever doing that” but added that he may have done that as a child.
Through Mr Trump did not directly “authorise” the advertisement, it was created by a Political Action Committee (PAC) aligned with Mr Trump’s politics according to Open Secrets.
MAGA Inc is a super PAC that began in September of last year, shortly before Mr Trump launched his campaign for president. As a super PAC, it can spend unlimited money on politics so long as its independent of individual campaigns.
So far, MAGA Inc has spent over $1m on independent expenditures supporting Republican candidates like JD Vance, Mehmet Oz, Blake Masters, and more.
Meanwhile, it has spent over $11m on independent expenditures opposing Democratic candidates like Raphael Warnock, John Fetterman, Mark Kelly, and more.
According to a report from NBC News, Mr Trump’s PAC called Save America transferred a “vast majority” of its funds to MAGA Inc before announcing his run for president.
The advertisement falls in line with Mr Trump’s recent attacks on Mr DeSantis who is expected to announce his campaign for 2024 president.
