Piers Morgan has hit out at Donald Trump, calling him a "whiny has-been" who needs to be replaced if the Republicans have any chance of winning the 2024 US election.
In an opinion piece for Sky News, Morgan said Republicans are lining up to back Ron DeSantis, who is the strongest competitor against the former President.
"He's just younger, fresher, and more exciting than the aging, raging gorilla who's become a whiny, democracy-defying bore," Piers wrote.
DeSantis, 43, has topped Trump as the preferred candidate in recent polls of Republican voters in the states of Colorado and Wisconsin and according to Morgan he is the "perfect candidate".
DeSantis came from a working-class family, his dad installed Nielsen TV rating boxes and his mother was a nurse.
He graduated with honours from both Yale and Harvard Law School and was the captain of Yale's baseball team.
DeSantis was also a navy officer, serving at Guantanamo Bay detention camp and in Iraq as a legal advisor.
He then became a federal prosecutor, serving as a Special Assistant in the US Attorney's Office in the middle district of Florida.
DeSantis is also a Trump supporter, agreeing with most of his policies, which is why many Republican billionaires enabled him to raise more than US$100 million for his reelection effort as Governor of Florida.
"DeSantis may be Trumpian when it comes to policy, agreeing with him on most issues, which will please the MAGA crowd, but he comes without all the January 6 baggage (he hasn't said the 2020 election was stolen) and wildly erratic and polarising personality," Morgan wrote.
"As liberal Bill Maher put it: 'You know what Ron DeSantis won't be doing? He won't be poop-tweeting every day. It won't be, like, having feuds with Bette Midler on Twitter.
"He's not an insane person'."
However, Trump remains confident that he would beat DeSantis if it came to it.
"I don't know if Ron is running, and I don't ask him," Trump told the New Yorker. "It's his prerogative."
"I think I would win."
