Even with stories about Governor DeSantis’s presidential campaign hemorrhaging money, cutting staff, and losing focus, the Florida governor’s staff has decided to attack a rising star in the GOP, Congressman Byron Donalds, because he offered mild criticism of new curriculum guidelines put out by Mr. DeSantis’s administration. 

On Wednesday, Mr. Donalds criticized the Florida education department’s new curriculum guidelines that describe “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Mr. Donalds, who is Black, said the new guidelines meet his standards for the most part, except for the description of the “personal benefit” that slaves gained. “The attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong and needs to be adjusted,” Mr. Donalds said. “That obviously wasn’t the goal, and I have faith” that Mr. DeSantis’s education department “will correct this.”

The attacks came swiftly from people in the Florida governor’s orbit, who have long been criticized for spending too much time on social media and picking fights with would-be allies. On Wednesday evening, the commissioner of Florida’s education department, Manny Diaz, attacked Mr. Donalds and questioned his conservative bona fides. 

“We will not back down from teaching our nation’s true history at the behest of a woke White House, nor at the behest of a supposedly conservative congressman,” Mr. Diaz wrote on Twitter. 

Mr. DeSantis’s rapid response director, Christina Pushaw, compared Mr. Donalds to Vice President Harris, who recently traveled to Florida to criticize the curriculum standards. “Did Kamala Harris write this tweet?” Ms. Pushaw asked in the comments of Mr. Donalds’s original post. Ms. Pushaw often gets into fights online with fellow Republicans who are critical of her boss. 

Mr. DeSantis’s government press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, also weighed in. “Supposed conservatives in the federal government are pushing the same false narrative that originated from the White House,” Mr. Redfern said. “Florida isn’t going to hide the truth for political convenience. Maybe the congressman shouldn’t swing for the liberal media fences like” Ms. Harris. He also said Mr. Donalds is “repeating false talking points pushed by the Biden White House.”

Mr. Donalds said Team DeSantis was being “disingenuous” and “desperately attempting to score political points” in attacking his mild criticism of the curriculum changes. 

“What’s crazy to me is I expressed support for the vast majority of the new African American history standards and happened to oppose one sentence that seemed to dignify the skills gained by slaves as a result of their enslavement,” Mr. Donalds wrote on Twitter. “Just another reason why I’m proud to have endorsed President Donald J. Trump!”

Mr. Donalds has risen quickly as a conservative star, receiving votes in the House speakership election earlier this year. One of his colleagues, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, said he would make “an incredible” running mate for Mr. Trump in 2024. Another member, Congressman Tim Burchett, said he would be “a great choice” in the no. 2 slot on the Republican ticket next year. Just last month, Mr. Donalds and his wife, Erika, traveled to Philadelphia to have a meal with Mr. Trump. 

The president of the New York Young Republican Club, Gavin Wax, who is supporting Mr. Trump and has been attacked by the DeSantis campaign in the past, tells the Sun that the Florida governor’s campaign is suffering because of the staff. 

“DeSantis surrogates’ hyperbolic and vitriolic reaction to Congressman Byron Donalds’ mild criticism of a DeSantis policy epitomizes the problems in DeSantis’ world,” Mr. Wax said in a message. “DeSantis can’t fight his own fights, and his camp demands unquestioning, obsequious fealty. … What a sad end to a once-promising political future for this little man.”

Mr. Trump’s campaign also came to Mr. Donalds’s defense. “Congressman Byron Donalds is a conservative hero, and President Trump is honored to have his endorsement,” a Trump campaign senior advisor, Jason Miller, said in a statement. “Ron DeSantis needs to look in the mirror and recognize that at his current trajectory, it’s not just 2024 that is dead for him, but 2028 as well.”

One of the biggest challenges for Mr. DeSantis’s campaign is the lack of support from elected Republicans and conservatives from his home state. He has been endorsed by only two sitting congressmen, neither of whom are from Florida. Of the 20 GOP members of Congress from Florida, Mr. Trump has been endorsed by 11 and nine have not yet committed to a candidate.