Roger Stone Launches Furious Attacks on Ron DeSantis

Donald Trump loyalist Roger Stone has repeatedly attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on social media in recent days.

Stone, a longtime adviser and friend of former President Trump, has ramped up his attacks on DeSantis, who is struggling to overcome low polling numbers and emerge as the stronger alternative to Trump than rival Nikki Haley in next month's Iowa caucuses.

On Saturday, he shared multiple memes on X, formerly Twitter, mocking DeSantis and his supporters. In one image shared by Stone, "Life After DeSanctimonious"—a mocking nickname for DeSantis coined by Trump—is written above a man carrying a sign saying, "homeless please help."

Another shows an edited picture of a cereal box, with "Team DeSantis" and "Frosted Flake" written on it. "These Desimps are so tedious," Stone wrote, a play on the slang term "simp" which means a person who does too much for someone they like.

Stone has also criticized DeSantis' wife Casey DeSantis, widely considered to be his top political adviser, on social media in recent days.

On Friday, Stone wrote that "you cannot organize and mobilize voters for a candidate that the voters hate" alongside an article from The New York Times which said DeSantis' campaign has "sputtered."

"No one who has ever gotten to know Ron DeSantis or his wife likes them. They are repugnant self-promoters."

In another post that day, he called DeSantis "a treacherous, backstabbing, weasel devoid of any character whatsoever."

He added that DeSantis is "actually a mutant with a severe personality disorder" and that "as soon as he drops out of the presidential campaign an aggressive investigation into his personal finances will reveal that he's also a crook."

That post prompted the Republicans Against Trump account to call out Stone.

"Imagine being Roger Stone, imagine being Trump's #1 henchman and tweeting about other people being 'Treacherous, backstabbing, weasel devoid of any character,'" the account wrote.

Newsweek has contacted Stone for further comment via X. The DeSantis campaign has been contacted for comment via email.

Stone's attacks on Casey DeSantis have previously sparked a backlash.

In November, social media users accused him of crossing a line after he called her a vulgar term.

And in September, Stone attacked Florida congressman Matt Gaetz for his support of DeSantis.

"You created this monster who has proven to be a backstabbing weasel and ingrate," Stone told Gaetz at the time. "He's done and if you keep kissing his a**, so are you."

Stone was convicted in 2019 for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. He was pardoned by Trump in July of 2020, just days before he was to begin serving a 40-month prison sentence.