Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to be a likely rival for the Republican nomination, and that means one thing: Donald Trump’s campaign is warning that anyone who works for DeSantis better not come knocking on their front door.

Sources with direct knowledge of the situation say that Justin Caporale, who helps lead the campaign, is saying that anyone who staffed DeSantis’s recent book tour will be considered “persona non grata,” RealClear Politics reports. Another Trump associate provided a more definitive comment, saying the ban goes well beyond junior aides given the task of setting up the tour.

“It’s a time for choosing,” the source said. “If you work for Ron DeSantis’ presidential race, you will not work for the Trump campaign or in the Trump White House.”

The threat comes at a time when Trump is enjoying a sizable lead in the 2024 GOP presidential primary field. While it’s thought DeSantis will join the race, Trump maintains a sizable double-digit lead according to early polls. Early on, Trump seemed to welcome DeSantis to the primary race, telling reporters at CPAC last month that the decision was “up to him.” Then someone asked him about another challenger, Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations, who jumped into the race last month, and he said “the more the merrier.”

But the former president has changed his tune since then. He’s now on the offensive against the Florida governor, attacking him harshly with more than just nicknames. Oh sure, he’s still “Ron DeSanctimonious,” but Trump has upped the ante, and in an interview with Piers Morgan on Fox Nation, Trump blasted DeSantis as “an average governor,” and a “disciple of Paul Ryan.”

DeSantis is not expected to announce his candidacy until after Florida’s legislature wraps up its session later in the spring, but Trump is not sitting on his hands. He’s off and firing, making that quite clear in a lengthy statement Wednesday evening. He fired one salvo, writing that his possible rival’s “polls have crashed” and DeSantis is “admitting he is finally in the race by beginning to fight back.”

Things between Trump and DeSantis became personal after the Florida governor spoke out on Trump’s possible indictment, telling reporters he “had no” interest in winding up in the middle of “some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA.”

Loyalty is a real concern for the ex-president. Republicans who publicly criticized him during the 2016 election were disqualified for positions in the Trump administration. Of course, there were some exceptions as long as the offender apologized, but this was apparently a real headache for some Republicans when during his transition to the White House, The Washington Post reports.

And some Republicans caught in the middle between the former President and his potential rival are warning that blacklists aren’t a good idea. “If Trump wins, he’ll need to hire the very best people he can,” notes Mick Mulvaney, who was Trump’s third chief of staff. He endorsed Sen. Rand Paul for the Republican nomination early on. “Whoever is advising him to exclude folks who support other Republicans in a primary doesn’t have a clue as to how to run a government.”

One prominent conservative grassroots organizer says Republicans need to unite around whoever wins the nomination, adding that divisiveness this early in the campaign simply makes unity more difficult later on.

“Even after the most effective Republican presidency, Trump is bringing back the loyalty test,” the organizer said. “Not loyalty to the country — but for a single candidate. It’s the American people who will ultimately decide who is the next president and many grassroots see throught these desperate pleas for allegiance and instead wish there was a substantive debate about the future of our great country.”

That leaves me with two comments: if this was the “most effective Republican presidency,” then I hate to see what the “least effective” one would look like. I hope we never get to find out. Secondly, we really do need “substantive debate” about what’s best going forward and I largely think people grow weary of all the bickering and mudslinging.

But some in Trump’s circle see the staffing proclamation as little more than bluster.

“He was very forgiving. He was willing to let all those people work for him,” said one former senior administration official, referring to vocal critics during the 2016 election. These people later closed ranks with the former president.

Perhaps one such example is Ken Cuccinelli, who was caught on camera disgustedly throwing down his credentials when top-level Republicans thwarted his attempt to obtain a rule vote that could have complicated Trump’s nomination. After a chat in the Oval Office Trump nominated his former opponent to become the head of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

It’s anyone’s guess how 2024 is going to turn out, and maybe I’m foolish but I think if Trump keeps bickering with his opponents there’s a good chance without doing anything meaningful or substantive, we may have a Democrat in office after all. The GOP isn’t keeping its eyes on the prize and so far most of what they are fighting over is enough to scare voters away, what with all the fighting over life-saving care for trans kids, their opposition to any meaningful gun control, attempts at banning critical race theory in schools and enacting more and more laws that cause real harm to the LGBTQ+ community, and lastly, their obsession over what women can and cannot do with their bodies could lead to another four years for President Joe Biden or another Democrat who throws their hat in the ring.

It’s a good hope.