Ex-Trump Attorney's Battle With MAGA Heats Up

Jenna Ellis, a former senior legal adviser to Donald Trump during his 2020 reelection campaign, is ramping up attacks against the former president.

Ellis has more frequently defended Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has yet to formally declare his presidential candidacy though reports have hinted that he could jump into the GOP fray as early as this month. She has not formally endorsed DeSantis, Trump or anyone else in the Republican primary.

She has previously tweeted and made other public statements about Trump and his supporters, accusing them of various forms of harassment due to her change in political allegiance.

The pro-Trump Political Action Committee (PAC) MAGA War Room has attacked DeSantis' character and policies consistently within the past few weeks, with a new ad tweeted Monday claiming, "DeSantis is not ready to be President, and world leaders know it."

Using a real-life clip of DeSantis responding to a reporter's question about his lack of polling support compared to Trump, the ad contains a fictional call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin—the latter saying that DeSantis is "flippy-floppy on Ukraine" and "was outsmarted by Mickey Mouse."

DeSantis was recently sued by Disney for what the company has alleged in improper retaliation due to opposition to its so-called "Don't Say Gay" legislation.

"The presidential commercials my homeschool group made when I was 6 to teach civics were far superior to this," Ellis tweeted on Monday.

In April, she issued a series of tweets criticizing some conservatives for offensive attacks against her. Ellis has warned that such tactics will harm Trump's campaign, especially in terms of female voters.

"Trump 2024's message to women like me and Erin Perrine," she tweeted last month, referencing a Trump 2020 communications official who now supports DeSantis. "You're either 100% in all the time or you deserve to be harassed."

"Sexual harassment, threats of violence, and comparisons to sex workers are never okay legally or ethically," Ellis told Newsweek in a statement last month. "This isn't about being offended by a meme, it's about not violating the law and basic standards of decency while engaging in political discourse."

Trump and his current crop of advisers and lawyers have reportedly taken notice of Ellis' tweets and statements, according to The Daily Beast.

"It all started when [Ellis] went to a DeSantis event at Doral and made it a point to post pictures of herself with his social media influencers, almost like she was trying to rub it in," one source told The Daily Beast. "Now she's regretting her transgressions. F*** around and find out."

Another source reportedly said that Trump "thinks she's a terrible lawyer, he's very down on her."

Last month, Ellis was censured by the office of attorney regulation counsel in Colorado—her home state—for making 10 "misrepresentations" on TV and Twitter as Trump attempted to misrepresent the results of the 2020 election.

Newsweek reached out to Ellis and the Trump campaign via email for comment.

A 'wariness' about Trump's 2024 chances

Susan MacManus, distinguished university professor emeritus at the University of South Florida, told Newsweek via phone that the Trump-DeSantis conversation has enveloped political conversations in the state throughout the last two or three months.

"But what is curious...by my last count two or three of their current staffers that work for the opposition," MacManus said. "So, Trump has pilfered people from the former DeSantis campaign and vice versa.

"It's the campaign season. Maybe one of them offered them more to move. Most likely it was something they didn't care for, or got slighted in their current campaign cycle for a position you don't know. But it's really obvious to Floridians who sort of track this and there's been each side with people that have abandoned them and moved to the opposition."

She said Trump's various legal battles, along with attacks on his campaign's behalf and those of his supporters that have been scrutinized by Ellis and others, are causing a sense of trepidation among statewide voters.

Floridians are worried of a repeat of Trump's 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

"Women voters don't particularly like the name calling, and obviously DeSantis is seeing the same kind of polls on that everybody else is," she said. "That's one side of it. The question is, is there wariness with the name calling the same thing that there's wariness with some of the other things going on with Trump?

"DeSantis has got to carve out a lane that's different from Trump's but still pull some [Trump voters] in. Ultimately, independent voters who tend to be younger and women—it's not exactly essential; in fact, it's alienating to simply have a race denigrate into name calling instead of issue discussion."