According to Donald Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis’ Florida Blueprint has turned the great state of Florida into a hellscape.
Just last month, the 2024 frontrunner (who is totally not at all scared of Ron DeSantis running against him) blasted the state he calls home by citing several far-left lunatics including MSNBC’s resident psychopath Joy Reid.
Yes sir. The DeSantis Florida Blueprint was such an abysmal failure that Meatball Ron DeSanctimonious DeSactus exposed himself as the loser, RINO, globalist, Paul Ryan puppet that he is.
And yet, it certainly looks as if Donald Trump (the guy who is “ahead by a lot” and is not at all worried about that Establishment RINO Ron DeSantis) has decided to steal from DeSantis’ Florida Blueprint and repackage it as part of his 2024 campaign promises.
Axios previewed some of what Trump promises to do if he gets the GOP nomination and manages to win the general election. And having read through the piece, I couldn’t help but notice that quite a few of the campaign’s promises sound a hell of a lot like the very things Ron DeSantis has done in Florida … that apparently, according to Trump, turned the Sunshine State into such a disastrous mess and Governor DeSantis into a loser and failure.
Team Trump is vowing to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs from schools and universities – something the Florida legislature passed this session and Governor DeSantis signed into law.
Team Trump also plans to go after the medical mutilation of minors – something Florida and many other Republican-led states have already passed laws to do.
Team Trump is also vowing to get rid of Soros-backed “Marxist prosecutors.” It’s unclear just what kind of authority a president has to remove local district attorneys who are elected to office. But since Governor DeSantis has gotten rid of Soros-backed prosecutors, Trump wants to do it too.
Axios points out that Trump’s blueprint is missing specifics, like how he plans to set about accomplishing the things DeSantis accomplished. So we can only guess based on past performance.
And if past performance is any indication, Trump’s grand master plan probably boils down to bypassing Congress and signing a bunch of Executive Orders that are easily revoked the minute a Democrat replaces him.
This was the Trump strategy during his term in office, and so far, I have seen nothing from the Trump campaign that leads me to suspect he would do anything differently if he did win in 2024.
One big difference between the Florida Blueprint and Trump’s campaign promises is that one of them is grounded in reality, having already been passed by a legislature and signed into law, and one of them is a series of campaign promises made by the same guy who once promised to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.
What are the odds that a second Trump administration would have the skill and talent needed to implement his ambitious campaign promises? Given Trump’s penchant for tossing anyone and everyone under the bus, why would anybody with an ounce of talent or skill sign up for that kind of ritual abuse?
The only people gravitating toward Donald Trump are the wackjobs, backbenchers, and sycophantic hangers-on who pose no threat to him and are unlikely to outshine him.
As I said in my column “No Country for Old Men:”
Since Trump tends to attract grifters like a ship attracts barnacles, a second Trump administration would likely end up being staffed by dead-enders and hangers-on whose loyalty isn’t to the country but to Trump.
Donald Trump isn’t a coalition builder. It’s impossible to build a coalition of competent winners when you’re busy blowing up bridges while promoting candidates based solely on their devotion to you.
And I just don’t see Donald Trump changing course.
The Florida Blueprint is successful in practice because DeSantis built a coalition in the legislature and filled his administration with smart, talented people who share his agenda. Since Trump is unlikely to do either, his blueprint isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
As Dave Reaboi put it in response to the Axios piece:
Let’s put aside the fact that getting any of this done—which requires a cadre of professionals dedicated to this mission—is far beyond Trump’s abilities; he’s on the campaign trail being far LESS visionary and based than DeSantis when it comes to the use of state power. Someone can write these things for him, and you can clap, but he can’t relate to any of it.
You can tell that this platform is completely unserious by the fact that, during his first term, he wasn’t able to accomplish a far less aggressive agenda. It’s all just fantasy for the rubes.
Most of these policy ideas are great—and they’re selling it to people who don’t have any conception of what it takes to implement a policy agenda—but you might as well ask your plumber to get it done. None of it is real.
Some of you are going to vote for him. That’s fine; you’ve got your reasons. But don’t be silly enough to think that any of this can happen—or that Trump is disciplined and committed to any of them.
It isn’t at all uncommon for a politician running for president to make promises his ass can’t cash.
Joe Biden promised to “restore the soul of the nation,” unite the country, end a virus, cure cancer, always take responsibility for his actions, and restore America’s place in the world.
What a shock; Joe Biden hasn’t done any of that.
What’s more, Biden flooded the country with over 6 million illegal aliens who were able to easily enter because the wall Trump promised in 2016 wasn’t there to stop them, and all the Trump-era executive orders to stem the flow of illegals were quickly revoked by Grandpa Joe.
The Florida Blueprint will have a lasting impact on the state because of the groundwork DeSantis and the Republicans have done.
Meanwhile, Trump’s MAGA blueprint from his time in office, most of which consisted of executive orders, dissipated like smoke the instant Biden replaced him.
Promises are cheap and easy, which is why presidential candidates make so many of them.
Lasting accomplishments, like the ones DeSantis had in Florida, require a hell of a lot more than late-night anger posting on Truth Social while your campaign staff makes pie-in-the-sky promises you wouldn’t begin to know how to implement.