Florida governor Ron DeSantis has suffered a "polling CRASH like no other", according to his friend-turned-rival Donald Trump. Once considered Trump's major challenger, DeSantis has hit headlines for all the wrong reasons since announcing his bid for presidency earlier this year. But have the wheels fallen off his campaign for good? 

Read on for all you need to know about the man Trump calls "Ron DeSanctimonious."

All dollar amounts in US dollars. 

In May, Ron DeSantis took part in a live Twitter event in which the Florida governor announced his run for the Republican presidential nomination.

This big news was trailed by the presidential hopeful’s wife, Casey DeSantis, who posted a dramatic video on Twitter.

The expensive-looking 30-second clip showed Ron DeSantis backstage against a backdrop of Stars and Stripes (pictured) as he prepared to address a rapturous crowd. Alongside the video, Casey DeSantis tweeted: "America is worth the fight... Every. Single. Time."

Ron DeSantis certainly isn’t afraid of a fight and that's just as well. His presidential campaign has been something of a rollercoaster ride so far, with 

DeSantis’ top rival is undoubtedly Donald Trump, who hopes to return to the White House even after four indictments.

Believe it or not, the two men were once good friends, but that all changed once it became clear that DeSantis could be one the biggest threats to Trump's 2024 Republican nomination. 

Having publicly endorsed DeSantis in the past, Trump has labeled his former friend "Ron DeSanctimonious" and even a "RINO [Republican in name only] GLOBALIST" on his social network Truth Social. 

Though DeSantis has publicly said that "of course" Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, he's steadfastly refused to respond to Trump's jibes, simply stating: "I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden – that's how I spend my time. I don't spend my time smearing other Republicans." 

And he doubled down on this stance in his latest book – a tactic that no doubt disappointed people who wanted to see tensions rise between the politicians. In The Courage To Be Free, DeSantis describes Trump as having "unique star power," writing: "If someone had asked me, as a kid growing up in the eighties and nineties, to name someone who was rich, I – and probably nearly all my friends – would have responded by naming Donald Trump." 

This has done nothing to stop Trump from sniping at his former friend. In February, a photograph from DeSantis' teaching days was shared on Trump's social network Truth Social. The photo, which was originally shared in 2021, allegedly shows DeSantis drinking alcohol with senior students at a party and recently resurfaced as Trump supporters claimed it showed that DeSantis was "grooming high school girls." Trump himself shared the photo with the sarcastic caption: "That's not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing!" 

Although former students have apparently described DeSantis as "a frequent presence at parties," the governor hasn't officially addressed the claims. He has, however, quelled speculation that he would take Trump to court for defamation, saying: "I would not take time out from being governor to be fighting lawsuits. It's just not practical."

And Trump has launched a slew of more recent attacks on DeSantis as he searches for an effective attack line. 

In March, Trump trialed the nickname "Tiny D" – possibly a lewd insult, or else the accusation that DeSantis had been spotted wearing cowboy boots in an effort to increase his height. 

In April, Trump asserted that he "couldn't care less" if the governor challenged him and claimed that "the problem is the Bill he is about to sign, which allows him to run without resigning from being Governor, totally weakens Election Integrity in Florida."

An interview with The Messenger earlier this month saw the former POTUS lay into his rival once more: "I think the media has said he’s doing a terrible job and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. You know, the media has not been friendly to him. They’re saying that he’s a rank amateur. And you know, he started off fine, but then he hasn’t done very well. You look at the polls." 

Trump isn't wrong about the polls: some show him ahead of DeSantis by as much as 30 points. Can the governor pull it back?

Not everybody thinks so. Earlier this week Trump took to his social network, Truth Social, to share an article about Ed Rollins, the former co-chair of DeSantis' super political action committee (PAC) Ready for Ron. According to the article originally published by The National Pulse, "Ed Rollins... has admitted that 'no one in the Republican primaries is going to beat, defeat President Trump,' adding: '[Trump] has a strong, solid base.'" 

The spokesperson for another DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down, has painted a similarly gloomy picture. "Right now, in national polling, we are way behind. I'll be the first to admit that," he said in July. "I believe in being really blunt and really honest. It's an uphill battle."

DeSantis might not have openly admitted that his campaign is trailing Trump's, but he has stated taking subtle digs at the former POTUS.

Speaking to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando recently, DeSantis pointed out that if he were elected president he – unlike Trump – could run for re-election and spend eight years in the White House. Trump can't do this as he's already spent four years as president. 

DeSantis also spoke about his plans to "protect faith and family," in what some might see as a swipe at the three-times-married former president who's recently been found liable for sexual assault and who's under investigation for alleged illicit payments to an adult film star. In July, he also shared a video on Twitter that shows Trump's supposed support of the LGBTQIA+ community in an attempt to turn conservative voters against him.

DeSantis has recently argued that only he can defeat Biden in the 2024 presidential election. "You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing," he reportedly said in a call with top Republican donors. 

"Biden, Trump and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president – Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him."

Donald Trump definitely doesn't agree, even declaring that "Ron’s magic is GONE" after two DeSantis-backed politicians suffered election defeats while Trump's endorsed candidates won. In a post with an embarrassing typo, he's since claimed to have heard a "roomer" that DeSantis will be dropping out of the presidential race to run for Senate in Florida. 

Fueling these rumours are reports that DeSantis' presidential war chest is running dry. According to The New York Times, DeSantis made more money than any other presidential candidate – Republican or Democrat – between April and June, with total funds of $20.1 million. His cash on hand by the end of Q2 totaled $12.2 million, the majority of which was claimed to have come from big-money backers.

But in the weeks following these reports, the campaign started burning through its cash reserves. Over just six weeks, DeSantis spent $1.5 million on travel costs, even while starting to lay off his staff. He's now believed to have slimmed down his workforce by as much as 40%, while a recent campaign update said he would be reducing the amount he travels, potentially another cost-cutting technique.

Besides travel, DeSantis has also spent big on adverts. In July his campaign apparently spent at least $1 million on an ad featuring an AI version of Trump's voice to be aired in Iowa. Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said: "After losing big donors and slashing their staff, they have now outsourced their work to AI just like they would like to outsource American jobs to China." (While it's DeSantis' biggest donor, Robert Bigelow, has reportedly withdrawn his backing unless the governor shifts his political stance to appeal to more moderates, DeSantis can't exactly be called a friend to China; he's pledged to revoke the nation's normal trade status if elected, describing it as "the No 1 geopolitical threat [America] faces.")

DeSantis' friendship with Trump has certainly soured, and the same can be said for the governor's relationship with Disney. He clearly once had affection for Disney's Florida resort, even getting married there back in 2009. More on that later. 

The fairy tale ended in January 2022 when DeSantis introduced the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics. Seen as discriminatory by many people, the bill prohibits classroom instruction and discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in certain elementary school grades. The controversial bill was passed by Florida's Republican-controlled House of Representatives in late February 2022, prompting the then-former Disney CEO Bob Iger to take to Twitter and denounce the legislation for putting "vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy." 

Bob Chapek, who was the CEO of Disney at the time, was slammed for initially failing to speak out strongly against the bill. However, he launched a barrage of criticism against it in March 2022, condemning the legislation outright. 

Florida's Republican lawmakers – and Ron DeSantis in particular – reacted with fury, labelling the company "woke," and the daggers were well and truly drawn.

DeSantis eventually signed the contentious bill into law in late March 2022, before turning his attention to Disney World's special tax status. This came into force in 1967 and effectively allows the resort to function as its own municipal government under the Reedy Creek Improvement District. This special designation has helped to save Disney millions of dollars over the years.

The Florida legislature then moved to allow DeSantis to take away Disney's special tax status but relented after lawmakers realized that local taxpayers would have to fund Disney World services such as policing and road maintenance, as well as take on its billion-dollar debt.

The governor signed into law a bill that came into effect in February of this year, changing the name of the district to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. DeSantis was given the power to appoint the members of its new board, who reportedly include a campaign donor and a "prominent parents' right activist," according to NPR. 

Yet before the new DeSantis board members were appointed, Disney quietly slipped in a development agreement limiting their power for perpetuity. This was done by adding a rare "Royal lives" legal clause that ensures the agreement limiting the board members' power is binding until 21 years after the last descendant of Britain's King Charles III dies.

Overturning this will be quite the challenge for DeSantis. However, having recently suggested that a state prison could be built close to the resort, it's clear that he's far from finished with taking on the entertainment giant.

But Disney certainly isn't giving up easily either. Bob Iger (pictured) remains in fighting form, having recently condemned DeSantis's actions as "anti-business" and "anti-Florida," while CNBC reports that the corporation has recently urged lobbyists to "step up" the fight against the governor. 

On 26 April Disney made a bombshell announcement that it's suing DeSantis for allegedly illegally using Florida's state government to punish a company for voicing opinions that ought to be protected by free-speech rights. 

In its filing to federal court in Tallahassee, Disney stated that it intends to protect Disney World's employees and guests from "retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials," and that it has been "forced to defend itself against a State weaponizing its power to inflict political punishment." 

DeSantis' war with Disney could be costly for the governor's state. The entertainment conglomerate announced that it's canceling a $1 billion investment in Florida and won't move ahead with a new Disney campus in Lake Nona, which would have employed more than 2,000 workers. The decision to cancel the development will disappoint many in the Sunshine State. 

Disney cited "changing business conditions" as the reason for the dramatic U-turn, leading many to conclude that the feud with DeSantis lay behind the decision. As the editorial board of the Miami Herald put it: "Floridians are the losers here. We've lost jobs and investment, and we could lose even more, all because DeSantis picked a petty fight with Disney." 

DeSantis' lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and Disney has now asked to narrow the scope of its federal lawsuit to a free speech claim, claiming the removal of its special tax status was in retaliation to its opposition of the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

And Disney isn't the only major business with DeSantis in its firing line. The Orlando franchise of famous drag show restaurant chain Hamburger Mary’s is also suing DeSantis and the state of Florida. According to the lawsuit, DeSantis’ bill prohibiting children’s attendance at drag shows is harming its business and "seeks to explicitly restrict or chill speech and expression protected by the First Amendment."

Hamburger Mary’s Orlando offers what it describes as "family friendly" drag performances each Sunday. According to the team, these performances were immediately affected by Florida's new law, which they say "has had a chilling effect on free speech" in the state.

Explaining its legal action on Facebook, Hamburger Mary's argued that "This bill has nothing to do with children, and everything to do with the continued oppression of the LGBTQ+ community." 

Ron DeSantis is beginning his presidential bid with plenty of enemies. But who even is the man who hopes to be America's 48th president? Read on for what you need to know about DeSantis' life and wealth...

Born in Jacksonville, Florida on 14 September 1978, DeSantis had a modest upbringing. Unlike Trump, who was rich from birth and became a millionaire at age eight, the young Ron grew up in a blue-collar family.

DeSantis' father Ronald was a Nielsen TV-ratings box installer, while his mother worked as a nurse. A gifted student and athlete, the younger Ron thrived at high school, graduating with flying colors in 1997. 

Clever, sporty and hard-working, DeSantis was a shoo-in to Yale University, winning a full scholarship to the prestigious college.

To help finance his education, the enterprising youngster had a number of side hustles, supplementing his scholarship and student loans by toiling away as an electrician's assistant and baseball camp coach, and doing other low-paid odd jobs.

After leaving Yale in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in history, DeSantis spent the following academic year working as a history teacher and sports coach at Darlington School, a private boarding school in Rome, Georgia.

According to a colleague who did the same job, the salary amounted to $27,000, with free accommodation and meals thrown in.

Reminders of his teaching days might have surfaced on social media, but the job was otherwise a mere blip for DeSantis – who was eyeing a much more lucrative legal career. In 2002, the Yale graduate got the ball rolling when he was accepted with open arms to another renowned Ivy League institution, Harvard Law School. The brainiac student sailed through his studies and earned his Juris Doctor with honors in 2005.

DeSantis had been inspired to become a military lawyer after watching the 1992 movie A Few Good Men starring his favorite movie star Tom Cruise, who plays a legal eagle in the US Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps, aka JAG.

Fulfilling his ambition, DeSantis was assigned to the JAG in 2004 while he was still at Harvard, and completed Naval Justice School in 2005.

In 2006, DeSantis was promoted to lieutenant, the rank Tom Cruise's character holds in the movie, and worked with Al-Qaeda detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The following year, he served as a lawyer with Navy SEALs in Iraq, garnering a Bronze Star for his work there.

After returning to the US, DeSantis was stationed full time at the Mayport base near Jacksonville until his active service ended in 2010.

In terms of salary, DeSantis started on an O-2 pay grade as junior lieutenant, which means he would have earned a basic salary of $32,388 in 2005, his first full year of active service.

The naval officer's promotion to lieutenant and pay grade O-3 the following year came with a good pay rise, with the basic salary coming in at $38,652 for 2006.

With more than two years in the Navy under his belt, DeSantis scooped yet another fat raise in 2007 when the annual basic pay for his grade and length of service totaled $44,784. The figure increased to $50,028 in 2008 and $56,676 in 2009.

For his final year as an active service naval officer, DeSantis was entitled to a basic salary of $58,601 pro rata.

After leaving active naval service in April 2010, DeSantis married TV host Casey Black, who he'd met playing golf. At the time, Black was an anchor at local TV station WJXT, a job that currently pays $59,900 a year typically according to Glassdoor. Mrs DeSantis went on to work at the Golf Channel and media company Tegna's two Jacksonville stations, winning a regional Emmy along the way.

Post-Navy, DeSantis found employment at Jacksonville law firm Holland & Knight before the lure of politics beckoned. In 2011, he published a damning critique of the then president called Dreams from Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama, which outlined his populist right-wing stance.

The book put DeSantis on the map, but sales don't appear to have been all that stellar. According to his 2012 Congressional financial disclosure, royalties from the publisher and Amazon amounted to just $8,185 that year, while Forbes has estimated the venture netted DeSantis just $20,000 in total.

An anonymous source recently alleged that the governor pulled out of a lucrative book deal worth almost $2 million with an undisclosed publisher. His most recent book The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival is published by Broadside Books, a conservative imprint of HarperCollins, though it's not clear how much he was paid for the new title.

The Courage to Be Free was released in February, and is a first-hand account of the governor's rise to power and his "blueprint" for resisting the "leftist elite." 

It not only discusses DeSantis' agenda for the Sunshine State (and beyond), but discusses his relationship with Trump, who he praises and credits with "enhanc[ing] [his] name recognition."

Reuters reported that crowds were lining up for the first copies, so it's unsurprising the book proved a major money-maker for the aspiring POTUS. Accoridng to his state financial disclosure, filed in June, DeSantis made $1.25 million from sales of the book, which was the first non-government income stream he'd reported since 2018.

Early in 2012, DeSantis quit Holland & Knight to run for a seat in the House of Representatives, winning the Republican nomination for Florida's Sixth Congressional District by a comfortable margin. His salary for the short time he worked at the law firm that year equated to $12,155, as reported in the official financial disclosure.

DeSantis had become the darling of the Tea Party, the right-wing populist movement that paved the way for Trumpism, and with plenty of donor cash fueling his campaign he stormed to victory in the November election, winning 57.3% of the vote. DeSantis increased his share to 62.5% in the 2014 congressional election and snagged over 60% again in 2016.

In 2013, his first full year as a congressman, DeSantis received a salary of $174,000, the standard pay for representatives. The figure was frozen in 2009 and has remained unchanged, which means DeSantis earned more in a relative sense during his debut 12 months in Congress as inflation devalued the figure in subsequent years.

DeSantis had an estimated net worth of $46,500 in 2013, making him one of the least wealthy members of Congress. Apart from the salary he was getting from the government and the meager book royalties, DeSantis did pull in some additional income during his time in Washington DC as per the annual financial disclosures the politician was obliged to file.

This extra income consisted of interest on some modest savings and a small stock portfolio worth several thousand dollars. The biggest payout came in the form of rental income. In 2017, the congressman received a tidy $27,500, but just $5,500 the following year when the property in question was presumably rented out for just two months. It was later sold in March 2019.

At the end of 2017, DeSantis reported a net worth of $310,971 on his Florida State financial disclosure form. He announced a run for governor of the Sunshine State in January 2018. Backed to the hilt by Trump, who saw him as a protégé and loyal ally, DeSantis won the November 2018 election, albeit by a very slim majority, a result he would better and then some in November 2022.

A month later, the newly elected governor's net worth stood at $283,605, a drop of 9% from the year before. During 2018, his salary from the House of Representatives, which he quit that September, totaled $116,000, while his pay as Florida's governor-elect came in at $15,297.

DeSantis was sworn in as Florida governor on 8 January 2019. At the end of December, his net worth was $291,449, a small but significant improvement on the previous year. His gubernatorial salary came in at $130,000, but the rental income had vanished; as we've mentioned, DeSantis offloaded the property in March of that year.

The sale was reflected in the governor's net worth declaration at the end of 2020 when the figure had climbed to $348,832, an increase of 20%. DeSantis also landed a raise of just over 3%, with his salary that year listed as $134,181. This, along with the profit he made on the property, boosted his overall wealth.

DeSantis reported a net worth of $318,987 at the end of 2021, down 9% from the 2020 peak, while his salary stayed at $134,181. 

A tweet that went viral in May last year claimed the Florida governor's fortune had skyrocketed to $52 million, but the author had confused campaign donations with personal wealth.

Now, let's take a look at what DeSantis has spent his money on over the years and figure out the key assets he's owned.

After leaving the family home in Dunedin, Florida, which his father bought in 1985 for $65,000, the equivalent of $180,000 today, DeSantis shared this semi-detached rental in New Haven, Connecticut while attending Yale University.

DeSantis had to take out a bunch of student loans to see him through his college and postgrad education. And the top politician is still paying them off. The outstanding balance according to a financial disclosure filed at the end of 2021 was a rather hefty $21,285, which is owed to leading US student loan servicer Sallie Mae.

In November 2022, Forbes noted that DeSantis still owes roughly $20,000 in student loans.

After living rent-free during the 2001-02 academic year when he was teaching at the boarding school, DeSantis went back to paying for accommodation when he started at Harvard Law. During his three years there, he lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was last listed for rent in 2018 priced at $2,400 per month.

DeSantis rented a succession of properties in Jacksonville and neighboring Ponte Vedra Beach while serving in the Navy. They include a one-bedroom apartment in the swish Cape House community (pictured), two-bedroom condos in the Bell Riverside complex, and the Venetian on the Ortega River. 

DeSantis would have received a generous allowance towards housing costs while serving in the Navy, taking the sting out of the rent he had to pay. In 2009, the year before he got married, DeSantis snapped up his first property.

The hotshot lawyer bought the three-bedroom, three-bathroom waterside home in Ponte Vedra Beach for $307,500, taking out a $314,111 mortgage to pay for it. 

In 2016, DeSantis and his family had to relocate when the neighborhood was drawn into a different district, and this is the place they rented out in 2017 and 2018. It sold in 2019 for $460,000, but thanks to the pandemic bounce, which DeSantis missed out on, the home is worth an estimated $769,300 today.

DeSantis doesn't appear to have extravagant tastes, but he did splash out together with his then fiancée on their magical wedding in 2009. Intriguingly, the couple held their reception at the Walt Disney World Resort, on Epcot's Venetian-themed Italy Isola, which costs $5,500 to hire these days, with a minimum spend of $10,000.

In 2016, DeSantis bought this three-bedroom, two-bathroom lakefront home in Palm Coast slap bang in the redrawn Sixth Congressional District for $242,000. He sold it in 2018 for $275,000 and looks to have moved back to the Ponte Vedra Beach home for a time before it too was sold.

DeSantis is no longer a property owner, and he and his wife even gave up their cars following the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election. DeSantis and his family moved into the splendid 30-room Florida Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee in January 2019 and have been living there rent-free ever since, saving a ton of cash. And it's a good thing they don't have to foot the security bill, which is covered by the taxpayer. The cost of protecting the governor and his brood came to $6.1 million in 2021-22, up from $4.9 million in 2020-21.

With the several thousand dollars-worth of stock now sold, DeSantis' key assets consist of $202,980 in a USAA checking and savings account (presumably his home sale profit), a Navy pension worth $89,066, and $48,226 in a Florida Retirement System pension plan. Forbes estimates his current net worth at $320,000. But his run for president could see Ron DeSantis become a whole lot richer...

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