Ron DeSantis stands no chance against a political barbarian like Donald Trump
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Ron DeSantis stands no chance against a political barbarian like Donald Trump
There is one thing, and one thing only, I like about former President Donald Trump: He’s going to make Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political life absolutely miserable.
Trump is already a GOP presidential candidate, and all signs point to DeSantis, the Sunshine State’s pugilistic, anti-woke warrior toad, soon becoming the former president’s main competition in the race.
That’s where things get funny. DeSantis has leveraged a meanness borne of right-wing buzzwords to make a national name for himself, at least in Republican circles. His words drip with disdain as he “owns the libs” and panders to those who view things like “diversity” and “inclusion” as profane concepts.
'Anti-Woke Warrior'? Not so much: Tough-guy Ron DeSantis defeats Woke Disney! Except ... he didn’t. At all.
But for all his bluster and right-wing celebrity, for all the boxes he checks on the MAGA-purity checklist, there’s this reality: Trump is going to eat DeSantis’ lunch, stuff the lunch bag in his mouth and leave him pantsed and bawling on the political playground.
Polls show Trump's continued grip on the Republican Party
A wave of recent polls showed that Trump – the oafish man who has brought the GOP a string of electoral losses – saw his lead over DeSantis surge in February. An Emerson College poll shows Trump with a massive 30-point lead over DeSantis, with support for the Florida governor dropping 4 percentage points from January’s numbers.
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll pitting Trump in a head-to-head primary against DeSantis gives Trump an 8-point lead over the Florida governor, which is a 12-point swing from an early February poll by the same group that showed DeSantis up 4 percentage points over Trump.
In a recent poll from Echelon Insights, a GOP polling firm, Trump is trouncing DeSantis by 15 points after only leading by 2 points in January. And in a new Fox News poll, Republican primary voters favored Trump over DeSantis 43% to 28%.
DeSantis can make all the right moves, but Trump just needs a mean nickname or two to win
This Trump-heavy swing happened while DeSantis was making what are theoretically all the right moves to win over the GOP base. He has been attacking Disney, making life difficult for Florida teachers, combatting diversity in state colleges and generally doing what one does to court voters who survive on a steady diet of Fox News and conspiratorial Facebook memes.
What has Trump been doing? LOL! He has largely been sitting around Mar-a-Lago sending unhinged missives on Truth Social, his sad social media site, and tinkering with mean nicknames for DeSantis, including, but not limited to, “Meatball Ron.”
'Woke' war speaks volumes: Ron DeSantis and the GOP fight 'woke' because hating a word is easier than hating people
This is the conundrum for DeSantis and anyone else toying with a run at the GOP presidential nomination. You can do all the things you think a presidential candidate should do, and none of it will matter, because at the end of the day, you have to face off with the political equivalent of a rabid badger on bath salts. There is no “too low” in Trump’s vocabulary, and there is no “too far” in the lengths he’ll go to degrade, dehumanize and destroy an opponent.
'RINO Ron DeSATANis!!'
DeSantis just released a book. He recently traveled to give tough-on-crime speeches to police unions in New York and Chicago. This week he had an 850-word op-ed in the conservative Wall Street Journal that included seven uses of the word “woke,” two uses of the word “militant,” one “leftist,” one “cultural Marxism” and one “fringe left.”
But all Trump has to do is step away from the waffle bar at his golf resort for 10 seconds and tweet something like “RINO Ron DeSATANis” to make his poll numbers shoot up 5 points.
Such is the monster the GOP created. Some wealthy donors and non-MAGA conservatives still hope against hope that Trump’s base of voters will wake up and abandon their toxic idol.
That’s not going to happen. Trump is being investigated six different ways to Sunday, he continues to spout dangerous election conspiracy theories and his every utterance on Truth Social should disqualify him from ever holding a position of power. But his supporters only consume media that holds Trump out as the greatest president in American history, so his flaws, which are legion, are wholly irrelevant.
Voters clearly told GOP to change their ways: So far Republicans have said, 'Nope.'
Can I pay someone in this Florida diner to support Ron DeSantis, please?
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade recently visited a diner in Florida and walked around asking customers who they want to be the GOP presidential candidate, and person after person after person said, “Donald Trump.” One woman wearing a DeSantis T-shirt said she favors the governor but is “either/or” between him and Trump. And that’s in DeSantis’ home state!
Trump could get indicted, but would it matter?
Plenty can happen between now and the primaries, of course. Trump could get indicted, though I don’t know if even that would stop him. In the upside-down world of the GOP, it might help.
But the idea that Trump’s followers will abandon him en masse? Anyone paying attention knows that’s not happening.
Trump is a political barbarian. He’ll either win his party’s nomination or he’ll tear down everything around him in the process. And either way, he’s going to pound DeSantis’ political dreams to dust.
And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like that.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.
Republicans are running out of time to show patriotism and throw Trump under the bus. Once he gets that MAGA rally momentum going, the freak show will be melting at his feet once again. Even Mitch McConnell will endorse him in the end. Watch.
The very fact that we are starting to be inundated with anti-DeSantis articles is proof positive that he has the progressives worried.
Once again, way off base.
It’s amazing how often you are wrong when it comes to Trump.
It’s like, what little intellect you do posses, disappears completely when his name is mentioned.
Amazing! Simply amazing.
Stop boring everyone. Please.
The truth is never boring except perhaps to the dim witted.
The next months are going to entertaining to say the least.
Popcorn ready, GO.
I agree.
Watching the liberal hive, shuck and jive, to make sure Joe and Kamala don’t run. In between trying to torpedo the Republican front runner. Entertaining isn’t the word I would use though.
”Sad” is much more apropos I think.
Of course, this article isn't about Biden or Harris but hey, if that's all you have go for it.
The food fight between DeSantis and Trump will be entertaining to say the least.
Trumps attacks on Nikki Haley will not be well received by the voters, particularly women...
Meh, Trumps time has come and gone.
Just like Biden’s time about a decade ago .... doh!
We will see if that true or not, more entertainment.
Amazing that you seem to have forgotten that he won a presidential election a couple of years ago...LMAO doh indeed.
The left wing is doing everything it can to make Trump the nominee.. Hit piece after hit piece on DeSantis, cherry picking polls to make Trump's nomination seem inevitable. The left will spend the next 15 months or so doing everything they can for Trump.
Look how consumed this site is with DeSantis.
You guys created a monster and now you want to blame someone else for the monster. You had "all day" after Jan 6 2021 to get rid of this plague on our country and you didnt do it. The right made their bed and now they will lay in it.
Personally, I dont fear DeSantis as a candidate. He is personally unlikeable and that matters a lot in a presidential election. Plus many Americans will tire over the next two years of his way overblown war on "wokeness".
I want Trump gone because he is a piece of shit human being and the worst president in history. But you guys want him back. Enjoy.
Yet your party is working for him.
Well John, it doesn't matter what you think, as you are consistently wrong. What you're trying to sell to us is the notion is that the Republicans, collectively, are uneducated rubes who want to lose elections. If it comforts you to think old Joe will stay in the White House, so be it. The voters are having a good look at seeing how corrupt and out of touch the leftists are to the real concerns of main stream Americans. The day of reckoning for the duplicitous Dems is coming.
A certain percentage of these election denying morons persist in the belief that Trump can win a national election. But the numbers or the influence of these idiots is nowhere near the 30-35 percent oft quoted here. What happened with DeSantis decisively winning in Florida will spread nationwide as soon as he declares and starts to campaign.
Desantis/Haley a ticket to live by.
A ticket for partisan fools on the left to attack.
You and the like “created” him. Now he lives rent free in your heads.
In perpetuity apparently.
So, liberals are responsible for trump?
FALSE! A dodge MAGA use as excuse...
So we should believe your wishful thinking instead of multiple new polls? No thanks.
You elected possibly the one person who couldn’t beat him so yeah. It’s just as much on all y’all as the people who voted for him.
I don’t expect you to be cerebral enough to grasp such a concept since as we all know. TDS rots the brain.
Soo.... a person who is not even a candidate is polling at 28%.
It's a catastrophe.