Former President Donald Trump said during an interview Monday that "we'll handle that" if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis enters the 2024 presidential race.

"So, now I hear [DeSantis] might want to run against me. So, we'll handle that the way I handle things," Trump said during an appearance on "The Water Cooler" podcast hosted by David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The Florida governor has not officially announced a White House bid, as Trump has, but it's been widely speculated he is considering joining the GOP primary following an outstanding midterm reelection performance. DeSantis was reelected by 19 points in November, a resounding victory for the Florida Republican that members of the party saw as a silver lining in an otherwise difficult midterm night for Republicans.

Despite Trump's recent string of troubles — including his dinner with a known white supremacist at his Mar-A-Lago residence, his multiple ongoing criminal investigations, the conviction of his family business on fraud charges, and criminal referral by the House Jan. 6 committee, polls show the former president leading DeSantis by 13-points in a potential matchup.

Major Republican political donors, such as Ken Griffin, the founder, and CEO of hedge fund Citadel, have also already thrown their support behind DeSantis if he decides to run. Griffin told Politico that the GOP is ready to "move on" from Trump.

Griffin's support is not meritless in its belief in DeSantis. While several polls show Trump with a lead against DeSantis in a potential matchup, one poll from Yahoo News-YouGov released in December showed DeSantis ahead of Trump, 47 to 42 percent, among registered voters.

Trump has handled the rise of DeSantis as he has most of his political rivals: by publicly mocking them. Trump has unloaded on the Florida governor before, calling him an "average" Republican who owed his political success to Trump's endorsement in the 2018 governor's race.

Following 2022's midterms, Trump gave DeSantis the nickname "Ron DeSanctimonious" and privately trashed him as an ingrate with a "dull personality," according to Axios.

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