Donald Trump has been throwing flailing punches at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis since just before the midterm election last November, and so far, none of those punches seem to be landing.
At first, Trump and his army of lickspittles hoped that by swarming DeSantis like a hive of meth-addled gnats, they could dissuade the popular Florida governor from daring to challenge Trump in the 2024 race.
When DeSantis won in a landslide and his coattails ushered in the reddest Florida in history, Team Trump doubled down, especially after Trump’s beloved New York Post featured a front-page headline about DeSantis’ victory reading, “DeFuture.” That certainly put a damper on Trump’s “Big Announcement” that was planned for the following week.
Trump’s fear of DeSantis’ rise was evident from his constant barrage of frantic, erratic, and unhinged attacks on Truth Social that were frequently IN ALL CAPS and entirely untethered from reality.
Despite six months of punches, Trump was unable to stop the inevitable, and last Wednesday, Ron DeSantis officially became a candidate for president.
I spent an hour Thursday morning listening to the Twitter Space discussion that was the source of so much mockery in the media (and Team Trump) due to the technical difficulties that hampered its start.
Of course, most of the mockery failed to point out that the main reason for the technical problems was the sheer volume of people trying to tune in to listen.
And having listened to it, I can tell you that it is well worth the hour.
I haven’t seen many interviews with Governor DeSantis, aside from the occasional clips featured on social media, so having the opportunity to sit and listen for an hour was helpful.
After delivering an opening statement about his campaign, DeSantis fielded questions from both Twitter CEO Elon Musk and moderator David Sacks, as well as from prominent conservatives like Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, gun rights advocate Dana Loesch, school choice advocate Christopher Rufo, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya from Stanford School of Medicine who, like DeSantis, was an outspoken critic of the federal government’s COVID response.
No matter the issue, DeSantis can speak intelligently in an off-the-cuff manner that has been sorely lacking lately. Honestly, after over two years of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden prattling on unintelligibly, it was refreshing listening to someone who could clearly articulate his positions while speaking extemporaneously.
If you haven’t heard the Twitter Space discussion, you can listen to it HERE.
Meanwhile, as DeSantis was sitting down with Elon Musk and doing several other interviews last Wednesday, Donald Trump was throwing punches at DeSantis on Truth Social in one flailing ALL CAPS rant after another.
He’s a RINO, said the candidate who is running to the Left of DeSantis.
He’s a Paul Ryan flunkie, said the candidate who, as president, endorsed Paul Ryan as Speaker.
He’s a Globalist! Because we all know how those globalists love it when you ban ESG investing and prohibit foreign countries like China from purchasing land in your state.
Trump has even taken to praising disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo as a way of attacking DeSantis on his handling of the COVID pandemic.
As a New Yorker who frequently excoriated my former asshole governor, I found that line of attack especially pathetic. I mean, I wasn’t even angry about it, that’s how pitiful Trump’s attack was. I suffered through the video Trump recorded and could only ruefully smile at just how desperate and grasping Trump’s arguments were.
Aside from his fan base on Twitter and those who religiously watch Steve Bannon’s podcast, Trump’s punches just aren’t landing. Not here in the real world, anyway.
Sure, the NeverTrump grifters from the Lincoln Project are taking delight in Trump’s attacks on DeSantis, mostly because the Lincoln Project wants Trump to be the nominee for two simple reasons: 1) he’s their meal ticket and 2) they want Biden to win reelection.
But no matter what lame punches Trump might throw at him, Ron DeSantis is more than capable of holding his own.
When asked by Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro about Trump’s attacks over COVID, DeSantis called them “very bizarre” and said if Trump does think Andrew Cuomo did a better job, it suggests that Trump would “double down” and do the same thing if this ever happened again.
When Trump accused DeSantis of voting against funding for the Wall when he was still in Congress, DeSantis pointed out that the bill in question, Goodlatte II, would have offered amnesty to 2 million illegal aliens in exchange for a tiny sliver of funding for the Wall.
What’s more, after spending weeks attacking DeSantis for going after Disney’s special privileges in Florida, Trump suddenly changed course, no doubt after learning that polling shows that Republican voters support DeSantis in his fight.
This is what happens when you spend your time reacting rather than leading.
In 2016, Trump was the candidate who set the tone and issues in the primary. Today, he’s the cornered, desperate old man who’s hiding at Mar-a-Lago, late-night anger posting to Truth Social.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Trump’s army of “influencers” are lashing out like cornered hyenas, attacking everyone who expresses support for DeSantis while peddling easily provable lies about members of the DeSantis campaign, particularly Christina Pushaw, the campaign’s resident rapid response pit-bull.
They’re also super mad at Twitter CEO Elon Musk, mostly because he hosted the Twitter Spaces launch of DeSantis’ 2024 campaign.
This tweet really pissed them off as well:
That 7-word tweet from Musk was met with so much alternate-universe gibbering, I had to stop reading the replies because I was rolling my eyes too much.
Good grief, the Trump army of “influencers” even went after the Christian satire site The Babylon Bee after the Bee’s owner fired one of their number for his profanity-laced attacks on Christina Pushaw.
Then there are the campaign-adjacent deranged lunatics like that nutjob Laura Loomer who spends her time railing at Casey DeSantis for daring to go by her middle name while accusing the governor’s wife of faking her cancer diagnosis to get her husband reelected.
Whatever happened to the MAGA Happy Warriors of 2016?
Well, many of the more serious campaign people, including Steve Cortes, have hopped off of the Trump Trainwreck to support Ron DeSantis in 2024. That’s left the Trump campaign in the incapable hands of creeps like Roger Stone and a gaggle of 20-something scrawny boys who weren’t old enough to vote for Trump in 2016.
Mayoral campaigns in rural Idaho are better managed that this clown show.
This is not a campaign that screams “Presidential Material,” and, frankly, I’m a bit embarrassed.
I spent four years defending Trump when he was president. I defended him over the bogus RussiaGate investigation, the Ukraine phone call impeachment, and every false media claim that came over the transom.
When Trump lost to Biden in November 2020, I was more than happy to vote for him again if he ran in 2024. But then the Trump Train went off the rails with Krakens and Pillows. And by January 6, 2021, I just wanted Trump to shut the hell up and go away.
Trump spending the last two-plus years burning bridges and hurling childish attacks at everyone who doesn’t kiss his ass pretty much sealed the deal for me.
Team Trump fears Ron DeSantis. One only has to look at the frantic punches and outlandish lines of attack to know it.
Team Trump might strut around like Mick Jagger while boasting about how their guy has the nomination in the bag, but behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago, they’re sweating bullets.
They’re sweating so much that it would probably take at least two dozen shop vacs to suck up all the flop sweat that’s soaked into the Mar-a-Lago carpets.
And while Team Trump is sweating, Donald isn’t out there campaigning. Instead, he’s holed up somewhere furiously pounding on the keyboard of his smartphone posting one angry ALL CAPS “Truth” after another. At this point, it’s only a matter of time before Trump is Howard Hughesing it at Mar-a-Lago, letting his nails and hair grow long while depositing his urine into plastic bottles and storing them in the room that used to house his classified documents.
That isn’t to say Trump doesn’t have time to turn things around. We’re still 9 months away from the Iowa Caucus and 4 months away from when voters start paying any attention to the primaries.
Trump can either continue his flailing, panic-stricken campaign “strategy” or he can smarten up and remember that he is running for President of the United States.
But if the last two and a half years are any indication, the odds that Trump can get off the pity pot and put on his big boy pants before voters are engaged aren’t particularly good.