Pro-Trump Super PAC Takes Aim At Ron DeSantis With 'Dirty Fingers On Pudding' Ad: 'Get This Man A Spoon'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is widely expected to throw his hat into the Republican primary, and in a preemptive move, former President Donald Trump and his supporters lost no opportunity to take a dig at the governor.

What Happened: As recently as last week, Trump supporters took aim at DeSantis with a 30-second ad, which opens with the narration, "Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong.”

The ad shows a man dipping three of his fingers into chocolate pudding and shoving it into his mouth. Throughout the duration of the video, headlines from publications criticizing DeSantis appear.

“We are not just talking about pudding. DeSantis has his dirty fingers all over senior entitlements, when cutting Medicare, slashing Social Security, even raising our retirement age,” the narrator says.

“Tell Ron DeSantis to keep his pudding fingers off our money or get this man a spoon,” the ad, which is run by Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC, ends.

Pudding Fingers pic.twitter.com/PRCVAZlkw9

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) April 14, 2023

The ad's “pudding fingers” reference stems from a Daily Beast news story in March, which included an anecdote of the Florida governor eating chocolate pudding with his fingers while on a private flight in March 2019.

See Also: Trump Questions Ron DeSantis' Popularity In Swipe Over Medicare, Social Security: 'He's A Republican In Name Only'

Why It’s Important: The ad is obviously meant to invoke disgust, said Rohini Kosoglu, former deputy assistant to President Joe Biden, while speaking to CNN over the weekend. The premise of the ad seems to take page out of Biden’s agenda, she said, noting that the president had said a few weeks ago that he would not cut Medicare or Social Security.

During the CNN segment, host Jake Tapper cited the Washington Post and pointed out that, in every single budget Trump sent to Congress during his presidency, Trump had ironically proposed cuts to Medicare and Social Security programs. 

Trump officially declared his candidacy for the GOP presidential primary in November. Despite the multiple legal challenges he faces, opinion polls put him ahead of DeSantis as the most favored candidate to get the nomination.

Image: Shutterstock