Exclusive: Ron DeSantis Explains Donald Trump 'Pride' Ad To Tomi Lahren

Florida Governor, and Republican presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis has been at the forefront of cultural issues facing America.

DeSantis has worked to ensure that his state is free from pornography in schools. He's also helped protect Florida's children from unproven transgender surgeries.

And he's enshrined protections for employees and individuals to avoid the pointless charade of mask mandates.

READ: RON DESANTIS WORKS TO PERMANENTLY BAN MASK AND VACCINE MANDATES IN FLORIDA

So it's not surprising that his campaign has worked to highlight his accomplishments protecting freedoms and taking on progressives.

Recently though, his team put out an ad attacking former President Donald Trump for his seeming embrace of LGBTQ+ issues during increased conservations about the "pride" movement and its cultural impact.

Trump supporters, campaign staff, and liberal media outlets quickly criticized DeSantis. With the governor appearing on OutKick's "Tomi Lahren is Fearless" show, Lahren asked him about the intent behind the video and what it meant.

"Yeah look, I think identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants, I think that's totally fair game," DeSantis said.

DeSantis pointed out that Trump is now against similar examples of biological males intruding on women's spaces.

"He's now campaigning, saying the opposite, that he doesn't think that you should have men competing in women's things like athletics," he continued.

DeSantis Says Ad Was Meant To Highlight Trump's Changing Views

During the interview with Lahren, DeSantis explained that the point of the ad was to contrast Trump's previous embrace of LGBTQ+ issues at the expense of women, with what his current position seems to be.

Essentially, the campaign's claim is that Trump is now significantly more critical of such issues as backlash to particularly transgender activism intensifies on the right.

For his part, DeSantis says he's remained consistent in opposing such overreach and protecting women and girls.

There's no question that DeSantis has been at the forefront of rejecting gender ideology at a national political level. And despite media criticism, that's an overwhelmingly popular position among Americans.

READ: BIRTH GENDER SHOULD DICTATE SPORTS PARTICIPATION, 69% OF AMERICANS SAY IN NEW POLL

According to his explanation, the ad was meant to expose Trump's apparent change of heart on some of these issues. Given DeSantis's leadership on combating gender ideology, it's an understandable position of strength in the Republican presidential debate.

And given the Trump camp's willingness to side with Bud Light, the DeSantis camp may have seen a justifiable area of vulnerability.