Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finally put his GOP presidential bid out of its misery and has, to the surprise of no one, endorsed defeated, former President Trump. You know, the guy who called him Meatball Ron. DeSantis' announcements comes less than a week after finishing a distant second to Trump in the Iowa Caucus and two days before the New Hampshire Primary.
This is what I wrote the day before DeSantis "launched" his campaign with Elon Musk last May:
I don’t see DeSantis defeating Trump. The only way DeSantis wins the Republican nomination is if Trump dies. And if DeSantis does win then he will lose to President Biden because he comes across like such an asshole. DeSantis managed to make a billion-dollar corporation look like sympathetic underdogs. Hell, he makes Ted Cruz likable. Well, almost. The only way DeSantis beats Biden is if Congress refuses to certify the election which they could if Republicans are in control of either House.
Perhaps this is a dry run for 2028. But if DeSantis flops there won’t be a race to run in four years from now. I have a feeling DeSantis is going to learn the hard way and annoy a great many people along the way.
And it turned out so much worse for DeSantis from the Twitter glitches with Musk, awkward interactions with voters up to and including siccing his security personnel on a 15-year-old boy who had the temerity to ask him if he thought that Trump violated the peaceful transfer of power. Throw in the chaos and turnover at the pro-DeSantis PAC and with it a voyage only marginally more successful than the Titanic.
DeSantis might be still alive, but his political career is effectively dead unless either Marco Rubio or Rick Scott retires from the Senate. Oh, he will still be Florida Governor until January 2027 but the only DeSantis with a political future is his wife Casey.
DeSantis tried to present himself as "Trump without the baggage." Well, Republican voters not only like Trump but they seem to like him better with the baggage up to and including 91 state and federal charges. And so does DeSantis going as far as to say he would pardon Trump.
In hindsight, DeSantis would have been better off sitting out 2024. But Ron DeSantis was the man who couldn't wait.
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