Former president Donald Trump has lashed out at New York Post and Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch and Florida governor Ron DeSantis after the newspaper baron’s properties blasted the twice-impeached ex-president’s impact on the 2022 midterms and promoted the Florida governor as a potential 2024 Republican standard-bearer.

In a statement released by his Save America political action committee, Mr Trump said the two Murdoch-owned papers were “all in” for Mr DeSantis, who he once again derided as “Ron DeSanctimonious” and slammed as “an average Republican governor” who’d benefited from “great public relations”.

The ex-president also hit out at Mr DeSantis for having followed guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and White House at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Mr Trump himself rolled out temporary shutdown plans under the slogan “15 Days to Slow the Spread”.

Continuing, Mr Trump claimed that the influx of new Florida residents would be arriving there “no matter who the Governor was” and said his own decision to move there had nothing to do with Mr DeSantis’ administration.

He also claimed credit for Mr DeSantis’ 2018 election victory over former Tallahassee, Florida mayor Andrew Gilluim and said he “fixed” Mr DeSantis’ 2018 campaign and used the FBI and Department of Justice to swing that election to the Republican.

“I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win,” he said “I stopped his Election from being stolen and now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games”.

Mr Trump added that Mr DeSantis’ claim that he’s “only focused on the governor’s race” and not considering a 2024 run is “really not the right answer”.

The ex-president’s attack on the Florida governor and Murdoch-owned newspapers comes just one day after the Post published a cover story hailing Mr DeSantis as the future of the GOP, and on the same day the Post published another cover story depicting Mr Trump as the nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty and said he did not build any wall along the US-Mexico border.

Mr Trump, who is widely expected to announce a third run for the presidency on Tuesday 15 November, compared the tabloid attacks to the frosty reception he recieved from Fox News when he ran for president in 2016.

“They will keep coming after us, MAGA, but ultimately, we will win. Put America First and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” he said.