As he tries to revamp his campaign from a distant second into a legitimate challenge to frontrunner Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis angered some of the Republicans he will need after referring to the former president's loyalists as “listless vessels” in an interview published Friday.

DeSantis’ campaign denied he was referring to everyday Trump voters, but instead Trump and Washington, D.C., insiders who endorsed the former president’s campaign.

“We have a strand in our party that views supporting Trump as whether you are a [Republican In Name Only] or not. So you can be the most conservative person since sliced bread — unless you’re kissing his rear end, they will somehow call you a RINO,” DeSantis said in an interview with the Florida Standard, a conservative media outlet. “It’s been totally detached from principle and what you actually believe and results, and it’s more about what faction you happen to” be in.

“Ultimately, a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual,” DeSantis continued. “If all we are is listless vessels that’s just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.”

Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, compared DeSantis’ remark to Hillary Clinton’s description of half of Trump supporters as “deplorables” in 2016. A pro-Trump super PAC made the same comparison and called the description a “disgraceful insult,” demanding an apology.

“To Hillary Clinton, Trump supporters are ‘deplorables.’ To Ron DeSantis, they are ‘listless vessels.’ The truth is, Trump supporters are patriots,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Make America Great Again Inc., said in a statement. “Ron DeSantis is showing his true colors. The pressure of polling in third place is getting to DeSantis and now he is lashing out at the very same voters who got him elected.”

DeSantis has largely finished in a distant second in most Republican primary polls after Trump, but a handful of recent polls had entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy doing slightly better than the Florida governor.

For his part, Ramaswamy said “the real danger to our movement is the rise of ‘listless-vessel’ robot politicians.”

On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin claimed the candidate was describing “Trump and some congressional endorsers” as “listless vessels,” not the entire Trump movement. 

“Why? Because Trump and DC insiders feel he is entitled to your vote. @RonDeSantis believes your trust should be earned and has the vision, plan, and record to beat Joe Biden and reverse the decline of our country,” Griffin wrote. “That’s why Ron DeSantis will be showing up on Wednesday night to debate, and Donald Trump will not.”

Trump is reportedly planning to skip the debate and air an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson instead.

Trump critic-turned-booster Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said on Fox News on Saturday that other candidates were gaining ground on DeSantis because of incidents like this.

“I don’t know why anyone running for president would put down half of the electorate,” Mace said. “Why Ron DeSantis would do that while his numbers are tanking is really beyond me.”

Since the beginning of this year, Trump’s lead over DeSantis has grown from six percentage points on average to nearly 40, according to the polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight.

“Bold move for Ronda Santis to follow the Crooked Hillary Clinton strategy and begin attacking Trump supporters,” wrote Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, on X. “Trump supporters aren't ‘listless vessels,’ they just know a globalist fraud when they see one. That's why your campaign is dying and @realDonaldTrump is surging!”