Milwaukee, Wisconsin - It's "Fake Vivek" v. "Pudding fingers" Ron ahead of the first Republican primary debate, as the two candidates target each other with increasingly personal trash talk.

The campaign of upstart presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy mocked DeSantis Thursday after a group backing the Florida governor advised him to "take a sledgehammer" to Ramaswamy in next week's first GOP debate.

A spokesman for the tech billionaire, who is closing in on second placed DeSantis in the contest, referred to a viral ad that claimed DeSantis once used his fingers to eat pudding.

"If DeSantis struggles to use a spoon, I can't imagine he is particularly agile with a sledgehammer," the Ramaswamy aide said.

The aide also derided DeSantis as "robotic" as the candidates scramble for the upper hand ahead of the crowded clash in Milwaukee next Wednesday.

"Vivek's job... is to introduce himself and his vision to the American people. These boring, canned attack lines from a robotic candidate doesn't change that," the spokesman said.

The squabble between the men in second and third place in Republican polls erupted after the pro-DeSantis super PAC posted an online memo including controversial advice for handling the debate.

The memo suggested DeSantis should seek to take down Ramaswamy and even suggested schoolyard insults he could hurl like "Fake Vivek."

It also called for DeSantis to defend former president Donald Trump if, as anticipated, he comes under fire from former .

"Hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response .... Defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack," the memo suggests, referring to DeSantis by the awkward moniker "GRD."

The memo also advised DeSantis to attack President Joe Biden and "the media" up to five times and seek to mention his supposedly "positive vision" as well.

Apparently acknowledging DeSantis' icy personality, the PAC also urged DeSantis to offer a personal anecdote about his family to help break the ice with GOP voters.

The advice offered in the memo and Ramaswamy's forceful response suggests Trump is poised to benefit from the debate even as he plans to boycott it.