“The times, they are a changin’…” — Bob Dylan
Ron DeSantis has been running in stealth mode for quite some time now, trying not to get on the wrong side of Donald Trump, all the while running an effective shadow campaign to head the next Republican ticket. All of that changed last Tuesday. Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony was the gamechanger that DeSantis needed.
Now Trump is skewered on the horns of a dilemma. He has conservative media outlets calling for him to forget about any third run at the presidency and withdrawing their support from the squalling man baby who throws food and grabs steering wheels. Trump is responding to this by dangling the possibility that he’ll announce running for office on July 4.
There is no question but that Trump is worried. Take a look at the first thing to emerge on Truth Social Sunday morning.
He needs to quote Breitbart telling him what he wants to hear and what he desperately needs his supporters to believe. He doesn’t want them to know about the statistical tie he’s in with DeSantis in at least one poll.
Trump is being moved off stage and it’s driving him nuts. The Guardian:
Seemingly aware of his growing political vulnerability, Trump is reportedly considering announcing another run for the White House sooner than expected. He has teased the prospect at recent rallies and, according to the New York Times, told advisers that he might declare his candidacy on social media without warning even his own team.
Such a move could have the added impetus of heading off a new star rising in the Republican firmament. Ron DeSantis, the pugnacious governor of Florida, is widely seen as his heir apparent and biggest rival for the Republican presidential nomination in two years’ time. At 43, DeSantis is more than three decades younger and is free of Trump’s January 6 toxicity.
Speaking from Tallahassee, longtime Republican strategist Rick Wilson of Florida said: “I’ve picked up the same rumors that everybody else is hearing that Ron DeSantis’s people are practically picking out curtains in the White House after Tuesday.
“Apparently they feel like this was a phenomenal day for them, that it was a great breakdown of Trump’s malfeasance and they didn’t have to bring the attack – it was brought by one of his former loyalists. If you look at it in terms of the 2024 nomination process, it was a consequential day.”
Trumpism without Trump is the order of the day for the GOP. That leaves only one real question: what will he do tomorrow or in the days ahead? He desperately needs to stay relevant and announcing his candidacy on July 4 would certainly do that.
There is a substantial downside, chiefly a financial one, which to the Grifter in Chief is no small thing: if he announces tomorrow, or whenever he announces, then his fundraising will be accountable to the Federal Elections Commission.
But he may do it, if he believes that he can forestall any criminal action by the Department of Justice. That may not be realistic. The January 6 Committee may do a criminal referral. We haven’t seen all the evidence yet. And Trump may find his third bid for office being sabotaged by his actions on the day of the Capitol riot.
This is some time in history to read political tea leaves and nobody is trying to do it harder than Donald Trump, ironically enough.
DeSantis may be free of Jan. 6 toxicity, but he has generated plenty of his own. It’s hard to believe there aren’t enough sane people in Florida or the rest of the country to stop him.
I agree. DeathSentence barely won last time and while he has done everything possible to please the MAGAt base, the rest of the state is not happy. If he should lose this governor’s race, he has no platform from which to run for president. I hope he continues his national travel to boost his presidential run, while neglecting his current race.