Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, held a joint meeting Thursday with the Israeli and Emirati ambassadors to the US a day before former President Donald Trump addressed a group of Orthodox Jews as he tries to move past his controversial dinner last month with a pair of anti-Semites.
DeSantis’ surprising presidential-style discussion with the foreign diplomats was announced on Twitter by Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog, who posted a photo of himself with the governor and United Arab Emirates envoy Yousef al Otaiba.
“I had a productive meeting with [DeSantis] together with UAE Ambassador Al Otaiba,” Herzog wrote. “We gave an overview of the Abraham Accords & the strategic significance & opportunities that they present to our region, the world & to Florida. We invited him to visit our countries in 2023.”
Herzog added: “I also thanked Governor DeSantis for his strong support of Israel & for the significant steps he has taken to combat antisemitism. We look forward to continuing to work with him to deepen Israel-Florida relations & to connect Florida to the exciting new dynamic in our region.”
The Trump administration brokered the Abraham Accords in 2020, leading to four Arab countries — the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan — joining Egypt and Jordan in establishing diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Trump, 76, announced last month he was launching a third consecutive presidential campaign, but polling shows that DeSantis, 44, could present his biggest internal GOP threat yet.
Trump spoke Friday morning at an Orthodox Jewish conference of teachers and social workers at his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort — a key test of his ability to move past the controversy over his decision to dine at his Mar-a-Lago club with disgraced rapper Kanye West despite a spate of recent anti-Jewish remarks.
West brought Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and later claimed Trump was impressed by the 24-year-old bigot.
In his remarks Friday, the former president boasted that Mar-a-Lago was among the first social clubs to allow both Jewish and black members.
Orthodox Jews became key Trump supporters during his administration, owing in part to its staunchly pro-Israel policies.
The former president’s daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism to marry Jared Kushner, who became a key White House adviser, and routinely boasted about his pro-Israel moves during his four years in office — including recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria and moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
After dining with West, Trump reportedly fumed that the rapper, who also purports to be a 2024 presidential candidate, “tried to f–k me” and insisted he didn’t know who Fuentes was before the meeting. West went on to give an increasingly deranged series of interviews, saying “I love Hitler” at one point during a sitdown with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
