It’s just as well that Shakespeare isn’t alive, this court intrigue would be too weird even for him. The alliances that are formed and then broken and then reformed out of sheer necessity in Trump world are something that would tax the imagination of any scenarist. Donald Trump takes credit for making Ron DeSantis, and there is some merit to that argument. DeSantis, then a congressman, made camp at the Trump International Hotel and got support from Trump’s allies for his gubernatorial bid. When Trump endorsed him, he raced ahead of his primary opponent to victory. Since then he’s been a staunch ally of Trump’s, but then Iago was a staunch ally of Othello’s, too, at one time.
In any event, it’s July of 2021, and Trump is looking to hang onto the GOP. That’s why he did his absurd lawsuits against Big Tech yesterday. He knows that legally they have less value than toilet paper. That’s not the point. The point is that politically they are very expedient. He’s using them as a fundraising tool and to maintain his grip on the party.
The GOP field is shaping up for 2024, with Trump and DeSantis leading a small field. Mike Pence doesn’t stand a chance, and probably wouldn’t run in the event that Trump declared that he was running. There is no way Pence is going up against Trump in a primary. There basically are no other serious contenders. Nikki Haley isn’t even in the conversation although she would probably like to believe she is, and she’s already said that she will bow out if Trump bows in.
That leaves Trump and DeSantis. And it’s been reported that Trump “fucking hates DeSantis.” That doesn’t mean he won’t ask him to become his running mate.
Florida is the gravitational center of Donald Trump’s MAGA-ified Republican Party, so it’s not surprising that the Sunshine State’s pugnacious Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, wants to be Trump’s rightful heir. Since his 2018 election, DeSantis has thrilled the GOP base by governing like a mini Trump. He defied public health guidelines during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic last year and kept Florida virtually free of a statewide lockdown. In May he perpetuated Trump’s 2020 election lie and signed a restrictive voting rights bill live on Fox News. And last month he dispatched Florida law enforcement agents to Texas to “secure [the] southern border.” According to one recent conservative poll, DeSantis beat Trump with a 74% approval rating (Trump scored 71%).
But in the wake of the Surfside condo collapse, DeSantis’s claim to the MAGA mantle is facing its biggest test, with DeSantis putting management of the tragedy ahead of Trump’s need for blind loyalty. On June 30, the conservative Washington Examiner reported that DeSantis’s team was furious that Trump intended to hold a MAGA rally in Florida while the search for survivors continued (DeSantis didn’t attend the rally). On July 1, DeSantis appeared alongside President Joe Biden and praised him for the federal government’s response to the tragedy. (The moment recalled the greeting between New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy.)
In recent days I spoke with a half dozen GOP insiders about the recent flare-ups between DeSantis’s and Trump’s camps. The sources agreed that DeSantis and Trump are on an inevitable collision course as the 2024 GOP field takes shape. “There’s going to be a blowup,” a prominent Republican said. “Trump fucking hates DeSantis. He just resents his popularity,” a Trump confidant told me.
Trump resents anybody’s popularity, because he’s not a party man. He doesn’t respect the GOP or the presidency as institutions, that he is merely passing through at this time in history, and will gladly pass on to worthy others when his time is done. That might be the way other normal politicians see things, but Trump is neither normal, nor a politician.
The big question is will Trump run again? His niece Mary says no, he just wants to grift and that much is certain. But his ego may not allow him to turn over the reins of power in the GOP to somebody else, if there is the slightest hope that he might get reelected.
It’s too soon to speculate. Bear in mind Trump’s legal problems aren’t going to just up and go away. The feds got Al Capone on tax evasion, and Capone was considerably smarter than Trump. DeSantis may inherit the throne by default. Or, he may push Trump off, because a certain number of Republicans are looking towards their future and they see Trump as their disastrous past.
DeSantis needs to walk a tightrope as he seeks to position himself for a 2024 run. According to a source, DeSantis has told donors that he won’t openly campaign in Iowa or New Hampshire before his 2022 Florida reelection campaign. But he’s clearly in a strong position. “Heading into 2024, DeSantis is primed to push Trump off the throne,” former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg told me. “Trump surely sees this coming and will ultimately offer Governor DeSantis a joint ticket.”
It does make sense. The shot is impossible to call at this point because there are too many variables, mainly Trump’s legal problems, but if Trump had to make a decision today, DeSantis would be his number two on the ticket. Whether he hates him or not. Politics makes for strange bedfellows.
Trump’s popularity with the MAGA base and the cowardly Republican congress and senate is high but his popularity among American voters has plummeted exponentially since the insurrection. I would love to those two clowns running for president and VP, dems would win in a landslide.
Iago is an interesting comparison if you think of DeSantis and his evil nature & scheming and the GOP as Desdemona. The operatic version of Othello is awesome. Overwhelmingly so. But frankly what we need is another character from Grand Opera created by a different author – Sparafucile (the assassin) from Rigoletto only we need him to actually get the job right. And on it seems more than one target. Alas, there is no one out there in the political world with the ability to politically “assassinate” Trump, DeSantis and perhaps even others.
The Big Lie has been born, and like the white “supremacy” bullshit of the KKK it might be beaten back into the shadows for a time but like the chicken pox virus that lays dormant it will periodically break out like a bad (and painful – something I know from experience) case of shingles. (Yes, I know there’s a shingles vaccine and believe me I got the thing!) What Trump and “Q” created is an alternate life form that cannot be eradicated, only controlled to some degree. When we’re lucky we’ll have periods of time where like the chicken pox virus it’s dormant, but eventually conditions will allow it to break out and flourish with all the ugliness of a shingles “rash.”
(sympathy on the shingles – had it *twice*.)
DeSantis would take out the former guy if he could – but only the MAGAts would help. Lots of people in Florida won’t; they don’t like either one.
One of the RWNJ big lies prevalent in Florida is that there is no such thing as climate change. How many more building collapses, flooded roads and hurricanes will it take to reverse this?
My bet is that it’s the gimlet eyed assessors of the insurance markets that will have the most effect, as they increase premiums to impossible levels to cover their losses. This will inevitably make properties un-insurable, which means un-mortgageable, which means valueless, killing off the property boom that fuels Florida’s economy. And would De Santis and his cronies try to legislate this away? Of course they will, but facts are facts, and keeping the sea away by legislation and government fiat has a long and ancient history.
Remember King Canute.
Isn’t there a rule that Pres and VP candidates have to come from different states? Or am I misremembering something?
Himself officially became a Florida resident to dodge taxes, so he isn’t going to declare otherwise just for a rule.
I believe the only reason the P and VP running on the same ticket are from different states is to get the voters in those states-it’s just something similar to an ad campaign only it would not cost anything. The voters in IN would vote a trump/pence ticket over a Clinton/Kaine ticket because pence is from Indiana. Although pence was on the ticket mainly to get the religious wrong vote it still pretty much guaranteed IN’s EC votes would go to the pubes.
There is nothing in the constitution stating they have to be from different states.
Who wins between desantis and abbott?
Diaper don might ask Death Sentence to take the bottom slot of the ticket but would ron take second billing? He is polling ahead of trump and I only see that gap between them widening. Every day trump is out of office the less relevant he becomes. I think the polls showing Death Sentence leading is just proof of trump’s increasing irrelevance. I don’t think highly of Florida’s governor but I do think he is smarter than trump and so he probably also realizes trump might be an anchor he does not want to tie himself to.