Ron DeSantis was just a struggling starlet hanging outside the stage door when Donald Trump took him under his wing and elevated him to greatness. At least that’s how All About Ron plays at the empty theatre inside Trump’s head. The Mar-a-Lago resident is currently pissed at the Florida governor and doesn’t mind telling any reporter within earshot.
According to court stenographer Maggie Haberman at the New York Times,Trump has described DeSantis as “fat,” “phony,” and “whiny.” The Washington Post goes into further detail on the rift, which is apparently the result of both men’s mutual “contempt for humanity” and “insatiable ambition.”
Trump expected DeSantis to officially sit out the 2024 presidential race, but DeSantis has so far avoided making any definitive statement. Instead, he’s not-so-subtly toured swing states and headlined rallies for election deniers. He’s not just “waiting his turn” like King Charles or Hakeem Jeffries.
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The two men once spoke regularly, a close Trump adviser said, but, “those days are gone.” The two haven’t talked since early in the summer, people familiar with the matter said, and DeSantis has not asked Trump to campaign for him.
Trump has notably not endorsed DeSantis for a second reign of terror in Florida, and his advisers claim he has no intention of campaigning for his former protégé even if asked. Pettiness is Trump’s primary political strategy, but DeSantis is highly favored to win reelection (regrettably). Trump might as well jump on the bandwagon, as he’s done in other Republican primaries. Now, DeSantis can claim he won without Trump’s help.
A USA Today/Suffolk poll showed DeSantis beating Trump in the Florida Republican primary 48 to 40 percent. That’s a stark reversal from a January poll that had Trump leading DeSantis 47 to 40 percent. Pollster David Paleologos considers this a “sea change,” and while we all might enjoy seeing DeSantis humiliate Trump in his adopted state, it’s a classic “out of the frying pan, into the fascist state” situation.
The Post hypes DeSantis for building his own “brand” outside of Trump, without stressing how this “brand” is fascism, sadistic bigotry, and a state-sponsored assault on the free market and free expression. The mainstream media seems intent on minimizing the threat from right-wing extremists like DeSantis. For example:
In recently flying migrants from Texas to a liberal enclave, Martha’s Vineyard, DeSantis took a polarizing step that Trump considered as president but eventually scuttled. It drew attention and outrage from Democrats and human rights advocates and delighted the conservative base on an issue core to Trump’s political identity: immigration.
Martha’s Vineyard is a not a “liberal enclave.” It’s a community where working-class Americans, including fishermen, nurses, teachers, and farmers, live year round. DeSantis used taxpayer funds to trick desperate human beings onto airplanes and ship them around the country for his own political gain. If this “delighted” conservatives, they are sick people. Here’s a life hack: Stay on the side of the human rights advocates.
Advisers claim Trump obsessively stalks DeSantis’s public appearances and polling numbers. He’s reportedly “soured” on DeSantis, and not because the governor is an affront to human decency. No, he feels upstaged by DeSantis, who Trump claims he “made,” like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster.
“He’s ungrateful,” Trump has said, according to two people close to him. “I knew him from watching Fox, and he’d done a good job about me and other things. He’s an Ivy League baseball player,” Trump has said, explaining his 2018 endorsement, according to a person who has visited his Mar-a-Lago Club and heard him talk about DeSantis. “I don’t understand what happened here. I don’t understand why he doesn’t appreciate me more.”
Trump is someone who treated politics like show business, so he should’ve remembered there’s a reason they don’t call the industry “show friends.”
OPEN THREAD.
[Washington Post / The Atlantic]
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