(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump escalated his rivalry with Ron DeSantis, warning that he would expose damaging information if the Florida governor were to challenge him for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

“If he runs, he could hurt himself very badly,” Trump said in an interview Monday with Fox News and other outlets. “I would tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering -- I know more about him than anybody, other than, perhaps, his wife.”

The threat is a familiar move from Trump’s playbook to thwart potential opponents. It’s also the latest sign that the former president views DeSantis as his chief rival in a potential 2024 GOP presidential primary field. Polls show DeSantis as the strongest challenger to Trump for the nomination should they both run. 

“I don’t know if he’s running,” Trump said in the interview. “I think the base would not like it, I don’t think it would be good for the party.”

Voters were casting ballots in Tuesday’s consequential midterm elections as that part of Trump’s interview was released. In Florida, DeSantis was re-elected by a comfortable margin against Democratic challenger and former governor Charlie Crist. 

A message left with DeSantis’s campaign wasn’t immediately returned. 

Trump’s remarks in the interview marked his strongest public broadside to date against DeSantis. On Saturday, the former president flashed poll numbers on a screen showing him dominating a potential 2024 GOP presidential field and referred to the governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

America votes

US voters are casting their verdict on Democrats’ governance and deciding whether to hand control of Congress to Republicans for the second half of President Joe Biden’s term. A GOP takeover would usher in a new era of a divided government.  

Some polls closed in the eastern US at 7 p.m., and the early results in battleground districts will give some indication of whether Republicans will achieve a rout. Momentum has been favoring Republicans in recent weeks, with inflation and recession concerns weighing on voters’ minds. But abortion rights and a slate of Republican candidates backed by Trump could still motivate Democrats to head to the polls.  

Americans say the economy is their No. 1 priority. The two parties competing for their votes have been painting dramatically different pictures of its current state of health. 

Republicans, who need to pick up just a handful of seats to take control of Congress, have put soaring prices front and center in their campaign and pinned the blame on Biden and his party. 

Inflation — which, along with the economy in general, regularly tops the lists of voter concerns — is the highest in a generation, eating into paychecks.

Democrats struggled to deliver a consistent message on the economy. At times, they promoted consumer cost savings on prescription drugs and health insurance from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, pounded away at oil company profiteering with threats of a windfall profits tax and seized on statements from some GOP leaders threatening to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Results of some contests may not be known for days, and control of the US Senate may not be known for a month if the contest in Georgia goes to a runoff. 

(Reflects DeSantis won governor’s race.)

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