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Politics May 25, 2023
Donald Trump. | Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday evening, during a Twitter Spaces conversation with multibillionaire Elon Musk and moderated by entrepreneur David Sacks. However, the event was marred by technical glitches that prevented many people from joining, and former President Donald Trump seized the opportunity to mock DeSantis on his Truth Social platform.
Trump has been waging a campaign against DeSantis for weeks, criticizing his record and downplaying his chances of winning the Republican primary. Despite this, DeSantis is viewed as the most credible threat to Trump’s chances of winning the GOP nomination for the 2024 election.
A recent poll by FiveThirtyEight showed that DeSantis is GOP voters’ second most favored potential presidential candidate, after Trump, though his polling has slumped significantly over the past few months.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at DeSantis, even claiming that the Florida governor would be working at “a pizza parlor place” without his support in the 2018 gubernatorial campaign. Trump’s attacks on DeSantis increased after reports that the Florida governor would formally announce his bid for the White House on Wednesday evening.
In his tweets, Trump referred to DeSantis as “Rob DeSanctimonious” and claimed sole credit for DeSantis’ successful 2018 campaign. He also accused DeSantis of running a “terrible campaign” in 2018 and said he was only able to overcome a 31-point deficit against his rival in the GOP primary due to Trump’s support.
Despite the technical difficulties, DeSantis announced his campaign on Twitter Spaces, becoming the first presidential hopeful to do so. Twitter CEO Elon Musk had touted the platform as a “smart move” for “any candidate” to “get the highest possible audience.”
DeSantis’ announcement comes after Sen. Tim Scott’s, R-South Carolina, entrance to the 2024 race on Monday. Whoever wins the Republican primary is likely to face Joe Biden in November 2024, with polling giving the president a commanding lead over all other declared Democratic candidates.
DeSantis has largely avoided hitting back at Trump, though he did appear to take a dig at the former president in March over his alleged affair with former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, which Trump denies took place. Asked about Trump’s then-impending indictment he said, “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair.”
Allies of former President Donald Trump mocked DeSantis’ campaign launch, with one Trump campaign aide, Steven Cheung, tweeting, “The only thing less relatable than a niche campaign launch on Twitter, is DeSantis’ after party at the uber-elite Four Seasons resort in Miami.”
Another Trump campaign aide, Chris LaCavita, tweeted a picture of an alligator being strung up, after it was revealed that the governor’s website only had a gator on it and nothing else.
Despite the backlash from Trump and his allies, DeSantis remains a serious contender for the GOP nomination in 2024. As the Republican Party’s highest-ranking official in a key swing state, he has a strong base of support among conservative Americans and is well-positioned to appeal to Trump’s base.
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