Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has seen his image as a fighter grow and his standing rise among conservatives across the country, thanks to his aggressive culture wars he has waged in recent years targeting the media, corporations and teacher unions, and his stubborn resistance to the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic
However, over the past six months, and especially over the past few weeks, there has been a largely one-sided fistfight between DeSantis and former President Trump as the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination heats up.
DeSantis remains on the sidelines of 2024, but is widely expected to enter the race, and in an interview that ran Thursday on Fox Nation, Florida’s governor said to “stay tuned” when asked about his political future. Trump, who launched his third White House campaign in November, considers DeSantis his main rival and has repeatedly and increasingly criticized the Florida governor in recent months.
Until last week, DeSantis had largely brushed off or ignored Trump’s barrage, dismissing repeated questions about a Republican White House run as well. However, with the former president’s legal troubles amid looming indictments — which would make an already rocky 2024 race even more turbulent — and with Trump’s attacks on Florida’s governor accelerating, DeSantis clapped back.
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File photos of former President Trump, left, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. (Scott Eisen, Spencer Platt)
Sources in DeSantis’ broader political orbit say the Florida governor “lives in Trump’s head,” successfully contrasting himself with the former president over their differing pandemic responses, style of government and electability.
However, a source in Trump’s political orbit took aim at DeSantis, telling Fox News that “if this is him stepping in the mud with Trump, he’s going to be rolled so hard and so fast.”
The noticeable shift in approach from DeSantis comes as the extraordinary legal trouble surrounding Trump has intensified in recent days, with the possibility of an indictment hanging over the former president’s head.
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After Trump repeatedly criticized DeSantis for keeping his mouth shut following the former president’s warning last weekend that he may face charges and possible arrest in connection with threatened criminal charges from a New York City prosecutor, the governor on Monday.
DeSantis tore up Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over the likely indictment, claiming that the Manhattan DA was “pursuing a political agenda and arming the office.”
Former President Trump speaks at a campaign event on Monday, March 13, 2023 in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ron Johnson)
Trump is facing charges over his alleged involvement in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep her quiet about her claims that she had had sexual encounters with Trump years prior to that year’s election. The former president denies the affair and any wrongdoing related to the payments to Daniels.
DeSantis also labeled Bragg a “Soros DA” — a reference to Democratic billionaire George Soros, who is regularly targeted by conservatives. In addition, he accused Bragg of being part of a group of accusers who pose a “threat to society”.
DeSantis – in an apparent joke against Trump’s moral code – added: “I don’t know what’s involved in paying a porn star hush money to get silence about some alleged affair. I can’t argue with that .”
The governor also stressed that “I have real issues that I’m dealing with here in the state of Florida.”
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The comments apparently enraged the former president, who responded with a wave of new attacks on Florida’s governor, again criticizing his former ally for being ungrateful, disloyal and an “average governor.” The former president’s surrogates were even less friendly.
However, DeSantis stood by his comments in an interview with British media presenter Piers Morgan. Clips and quotes from the interview, which aired in its entirety on Fox Nation on Thursday, were in the news all week.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addresses Iowa voters on March 10, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
He highlighted his landslide 19-point re-election victory last year — as opposed to Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election — and emphasized his “no-nonsense” style of government compared to the tumult that characterized the Trump White House years. DeSantis criticized the former president for calling federal health official Dr. Anthony Fauci, mocking the derogatory nicknames Trump has repeatedly called the governor.
An adviser to the former president’s political world, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely, charged that “the attacks Ron has made are weak at best.”
Referring to DeSantis’ 2022 Democratic gubernatorial challenger, the adviser added, “we’re not Charlie Crist and this isn’t going to be a patty cake.”
“We wake up every morning and think about how to punch Ron DeSantis in the face,” the consultant said.
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Another source close to the former president told Fox News that “Trump understands that if he can slow down some of Ron’s money and shoot this guy, Ron might second-guess the whole thing.”
Sources far and wide from DeSantis have said the launch of a presidential campaign will occur in late spring or early summer, after the end of the current legislature. However, the governor’s final itinerary to the early electoral states of Iowa and Nevada and a trip to New Hampshire next month are fueling more speculation in 2024.
In speeches this year, the governor presented his policy victories in Florida as a road map for the entire country. In addition, he has traveled across the country highlighting his “Florida Blueprint” and promoting his recently released memoir, “The Courage to Be Free.”
However, his polls in the race for the early 2024 GOP presidential nomination have fallen in recent weeks, as Trump posted gains.
Trump argued in a statement Wednesday that DeSantis is “starting to fight back” because “his polls crashed, so he has no choice.”
“Ron DeSanctimonious is the most overrated politician in America,” Trump claimed in a separate post Thursday. “His numbers on COVID, crime and education are terrible, but no one knows – now they know. He shouldn’t even be running!”
Former Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich, who runs the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. corner….if Ron wanted a shot at 2024, this was it, but he’s already flamed out faster than Jeb Bush.”
Longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams says DeSantis’ new, more aggressive responses were inevitable.
“DeSantis was essentially forced into it because President Trump and his team are already attacking Ron DeSantis because they realize he is currently the biggest threat to his candidacy. That has always been Donald Trump’s MO – grind your opponent to dust and do it asked. He did it to every candidate in 2016 and he’s applying the same strategy now,” Williams said.
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However, Williams, a veteran of multiple GOP presidential campaigns, noted that Desantis “draws a contrast on an issue that resonates with the grassroots: the way the president is handling the pandemic and keeping Dr. Fauci in his role. Dr. Fauci is very unpopular with Republican grassroots voters and it’s an area that the DeSantis team believes they can contrast the way the president handled the pandemic while in office and the way Governor DeSantis handled it in Florida.
“If you’re going to win the Republican nomination, you have to take Donald Trump’s,” Williams said. “He won’t give it to you and he’ll try to attack you at every turn. So you have to figure out the best way to beat him back, defend your own record and not alienate the base. It’s a tough dance and DeSantis will have to make adjustments along the way.”
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter from New Hampshire.
