BREAKING: Trump campaign responds to #Bootgate, calls it the 'Kiss of Death' for DeSantis

The Trump Campaign released a statement on Tuesday reacting to "bootgate," the viral topic discussing whether or not 2024 GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has inserts in his boots to increase his height.

"A scathing new article from POLITICO about Ron DeSanctimnonious’ high-heeled shoes comes on the heels of an embarrassing interview on the Patrick Bet-David show that led to #bootgate trending on X," the statement from Trump spokesman Steven Cheung began.

"When asked directly about why his boots look like stilts, DeSanctus offered up the implausible explanation that he just wears off-the-rack Lucchese boots, doing major brand damage to a great American footwear company. If there are any enterprising journalists willing to contact the Lucchese press team for their thoughts on DeSanctus, they are reachable here."

The statement noted the "laughable claim" from DeSantis that he is 5’11", adding that "instead of telling the truth and just being comfortable in his own skin, he resorts to borderline psychotic behavior by lying to the American people. Is that what this country wants in a president?

Patrick Bet-David confronted DeSantis about the boots that went viral after the Florida leader’s appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, saying after playing the viral TikTok, "what they're trying to say with this is that in your boots, you have heels."

"No, no, no those are just standard off-the-rack Lucchese," answered DeSantis.

"How tall are you?" Bet-David asked, to which DeSantis said he is 5’11".

Bet-David asked why DeSantis doesn’t wear regular shoes, which DeSantis said he does wear tennis shoes to work out in.

DeSantis was presented with a gift, in the form of Ferragamo shoes, but he declined, saying, "I don't accept gifts I can't accept it. I'm sorry."

Ashley St. Clair joked about the viral clip, showing herself wearing a pair of stiletto heels and likening them to what DeSantis wears when he is "getting ready to go out." After backlash from the campaign, St. Clair made an apology video, noting that the campaign told her the governor did not wear stilettos, but cowboy boots. In a revised video, St. Clair instead pulled on a pair of stack-heeled cowboy boots.

"This Halloween, Ron DeSanctimonius and team woke up to the horrific sight of seeing themselves getting dunked on all over social media for Ron's bizarre choice in footware," the Trump campaign email said, noting a poll conducted by Bet-David on Monday indicating that Trump was the favorite for the GOP nomination in 2024.



The email noted a Politico piece, in which the outlet spoke with three expert shoemakers who said that it was likely DeSantis was wearing lifts in his boots, as seen through the shorter-than-normal heel on the cowboy boot as well as the wider top.

"The DeSimps melted down in defense of DeSanctimonious proving once again that they’re nothing more than DeSanctus bootlickers (literally)," the email continued. "Maybe instead of focusing on lifting his height, he should focus on lifting his poll numbers."