By Ira – JBizNews Desk

Governor Ron DeSantis was waiting on the tarmac when Air Force One touched down at Southwest Florida International Airport on Friday, and he greeted President Trump with a gift built to go viral: a gold challenge coin engraved with an image of Trump raising a middle finger, stamped with an expletive-laced message to the president’s would-be assassins: “You missed.”

Trump showed the coin to reporters after receiving it, ahead of his Friday afternoon rally in Fort Myers. The full inscription renders the taunt with a profanity, widely read as addressed to the gunmen behind the attempts on Trump’s life, most notably the near-miss at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 campaign.

The gesture lands on top of one of the more layered relationships in Republican politics. Trump endorsed DeSantis’s first run for governor in 2018, then turned him into “Ron DeSanctimonious” when DeSantis challenged him for the 2024 nomination, a race that ended early with DeSantis dropping out and endorsing Trump. The two have since repaired ties in public, though DeSantis has broken with the White House on issues including AI regulation, and Trump moved quickly this year to endorse Rep. Byron Donalds to succeed the term-limited governor, a blow to chatter that DeSantis and his wife Casey had weighed a run for her.

Friday’s coin cuts the other way: a very public display of camaraderie, in Trump’s own style of humor, from a governor who needs the president’s voters more than the president needs him. For Donalds, the frontrunner in the Republican primary, the images of a smiling Trump and DeSantis on the tarmac are a reminder that in Florida politics, relationships with this president are never quite settled.

The moment also gives the president a rally-ready prop at a useful time, projecting defiance and survival to a friendly crowd as the midterm season heats up. Expect the coin to show up again.

JBizNews Desk | Fort Myers, Fla.

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