Trump wows Florida crowd, shares half-eaten pizza slice as a token of appreciation!

Former President Donald Trump surprised a local pizzeria in Fort Myers, Florida, on Friday night, energizing a crowd of supporters after offering them a half-eaten piece of pizza he was enjoying.

After giving a lengthy speech at the Lee County Lincoln-Reagan earlier that night, Trump made the stop at Downtown House of Pizza, surprising the restaurant workers and attracting a large crowd. The former president showed off the slice before taking a large bite and jokingly offering it to the crowd.

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“Does anyone want a piece of the slice I’ve eaten?” he said, which was met by laughs and yells of “No!”

But that wasn’t the only thing that got the crowd going. Trump also ripped into several of his political opponents and enemies, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who recently indicted Trump on a slew of criminal charges. Trump has been focusing his campaign messaging on the legal woes and criminal investigations he faces, hoping to use them as a way to fire up emotions among his voter base.

During his speech, Trump vowed to require “every federal employee to pass a new civil service test” as a way to “stop the local Marxist prosecutors who release rapists and murderers while prosecuting conservatives.” The comment was a shot at Bragg, building on campaign promises from Trump to replace liberal prosecutors with conservatives should he be elected.

“[I will] direct the DOJ to investigate every radical DA and attorney general in the country for their illegal racist in reverse enforcement of the law,” Trump said.

Trump also took a fair number of shots at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is rumored to be considering a White House bid against the former president. Trump took credit for DeSantis being elected governor in 2018, hammering down on a talking point he has repeated over the last several weeks.

“It was like a rocket ship after I gave him [my endorsement] because otherwise, right now, you’d have a lawyer someplace looking for business,” Trump said.

DeSantis has not yet indicated whether he intends to run for president, but the Florida governor is expected to make a decision shortly after the Florida legislature adjourns in May. The anticipated decision comes as DeSantis has been slipping in the polls in recent weeks as Trump ramps up attacks against the Florida governor and benefits from increased media exposure over his criminal indictment.

Despite DeSantis’s higher favorability ratings among GOP voters, a recent poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that more than half (51%) of Republican voters would back Trump compared to just 38% who said they’d vote for DeSantis, giving the former president a substantial lead over his closest rival. The polling shows significant growth for Trump, who trailed DeSantis by 14 points in a similar poll in December.

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DeSantis has spurred talks of a forthcoming presidential announcement after the Florida governor met with several GOP lawmakers in Washington, D.C., this week. However, that plan seemed to backfire in some cases after a handful of Republicans publicly endorsed Trump just hours after meeting with the Florida governor.

More than 50 Republican House members have endorsed Trump for the GOP nomination compared to just three for DeSantis. Among those, 10 Republican House members from DeSantis’s home turf in Florida have offered their support to Trump over the state’s governor.