DeSantis 2024: ‘It’s Hard to Disguise Being a Jerk When You’re Running for President’
Florida governor withering next to Donald Trump
Things are not going particularly well for Ron DeSantis and his hopes for getting elected president next year.
And he hasn't even officially jumped into the race.
The Florida Republican governor's problem goes beyond the politics of the moment, however. His flaws are a reflection of who he is, as a person, according to a prominent columnist for the Washington Post.
When he won an overwhelming victory last year for reelection as governor, many Republicans saw DeSantis as their best hope of returning to the White House in 2024.
But how things have changed in the nearly six months since.
DeSantis' erstwhile ally and benefactor, Donald Trump, already is in the race for the Republican nomination and has begun attacking DeSantis mercilessly with Trump's trademark insults and more, labeling DeSantis things like “DeSanctimonious,” and “Meatball Ron.”
Further, DeSantis is way behind Trump in endorsements. Particularly embarrassing for the Florida governor is the number of his home-state Republicans already have walked away from him to endorse a Trump reelection.
Trump has so far collected 67 endorsements for the Republican nomination, including from 57 members of Congress, according to FiveThirtyEight.com, a website that tracks opinion polls and politics. DeSantis has just four.
That includes endorsements from six congressmen in Florida this week alone, some of which were sealed with an invite to a “thank you” dinner at the former president's Mar-a-Lago home on Thursday night.
And Trump has been commanding the lead in public opinion polling among Republicans on their preference for their 2024 presidential nominee.
Perhaps the worst is the growing discontent amongst donors who have been supporting DeSantis.
On a group chat of wealthy DeSantis donors, images of which were reviewed by Rolling Stone, participants exploded with alarm last week over the Florida governor’s presidential prospects — and his primary chances against Trump.
“What the fuck is wrong with RD?” one participant wrote after DeSantis did not curtail his out-of-state publicity tour to return home amid massive flooding in the Fort Lauderdale area.
And some Republicans even say that DeSantis should sit out this year and instead run for president four years from now.
Yet the problems DeSantis has in his barely launched bid for the White House transcends either time or immediate politics — rather they are much more innate to who he is as a person, according to Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin.
“He is a jerk, and it is hard to disguise being a jerk when you are running for president of the United States. He just is not ready for primetime,” Rubin said. “And, I think the Disney episode is going to look like a ‘Little Marco' episode in retrospect, making him seem small and petty and rather silly, frankly.”
Rubin was referring to DeSantis’ ongoing battle with Disney because the entertainment company — which operates its famed Disney World park in Orlando, Fla — opposed his “Don't Say Gay” law months ago.
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