Trump branded midterms’ ‘biggest loser’ as DeSantis win fuels 2024 talk

Donald Trump was branded the Republican party's "biggest loser" following the US midterms on Tuesday, while his party rival Ron DeSantis swept to victory in a landslide in Florida, giving him a strong platform to challenge the former president in 2024.

If Trump was the Republican loser of the US midterms - despite not being on the ballot paper - it was DeSantis who emerged the party's big winner. Before Tuesday's election night, when the beaming Republican governor took to the stage in Tampa with his wife Casey and children to claim victory over "woke ideology", Trump had looked like the probable 2024 presidential Republican candidate.

But after DeSantis's highly convincing re-election against Democrat Charlie Crist, in which the governor took 59.4% of the vote with 99% reporting, the relative political newcomer is being tipped as a potential GOP frontrunner.

In an indicator of the changing tide, News Corp newspaper the New York Post, historically a champion of the former president and which just two years ago endorsed Trump for re-election, declared the Florida governor "DeFUTURE" on its front page.

An article by Fox News, another traditional Trump ally, reported that Trump was "blasted across [the] media spectrum", citing a quote describing the former president as the "biggest loser tonight".

Trump, meanwhile, who only days ago was teasing the date on which he is expected to announce a 2024 presidential run, was on Wednesday being blamed by members of his own party for the failure of the Republicans' anticipated "red wave".

Perhaps in anticipation of DeSantis's ascension, Trump, who is expected to launch his third run for the Republican presidential nomination this month, issued a pre-midterms warning to DeSantis, telling him not to run.