Jan 19, 20232 min read

Trump vs. DeSantis

Let’s start with the 2022 midterm elections, where the red wave turned out to be more of a small splash than a wave. Many “Trump” republicans didn’t end up winning their races leaving some to consider that the MAGA movement may be over. The shining moment for the republicans was Govenor of Florida Ron DeSantis winning his re-elect by nearly 20points, and is now being considered by some as the future of the party.

With people looking towards DeSantis as a possible 2024 Presidential candidate, Trump went on the offensive as he always does. At a rally he began using the term Ron DeSanctimonious, and even released a statement to a reporter that he was responsible for DeSantis’ Gubernatorial election in 2018. He claimed the FBI were “sent in”. DeSantis denies all of this, and I didn’t find any articles or stories published about the FBI being “sent in”.That’s the only comment he has made regarding Trump’s statements, and he’s unlikely to begin mixing it up with Trump before the Presidential race even begins.

(Check out this episode of The Boiling Point Podcast where I discuss this topic.)

Trump is ahead by 15-20 points on every poll that is coming out. Going negative and attacking someone who hasn’t even declared they’re running, before the race has even started could backfire for Trump. By attacking DeSantis, Trump is essentially elevating him to his level, while trying to claim that they aren’t on the same level. The polls indicate that the republicans want another Trump term, so why even acknowledge him?

My advice to Trump would be to try and unite the party, however, the political advice to him should be that he doesn’t even mention DeSantis’ name. He should run the whole primary as if he’s already been selected to run for President. If you believe the election was stolen, which he and I both do, then he should still be President. So acting like he’s got to go through the whole process again is him just accepting the election has been stolen.

Trump could further capitalize with this strategy by selecting the man that is likely going to be his toughest opponent in the primary as his Vice-President. A Trump/DeSantis ticket could put the republicans on equal footing with the Democrats. They could campaign all the way through the primary just as the Democrats will be doing, and unite the party to combat the democrats in this election. It would allow Govenor’s to pay more attention to the election process to ensure this election isn’t stolen.

The benefits of uniting the party far outweigh any kind of consequences in my opinion. While most of this is my opinion on how the republicans, Trump and DeSantis specifically, should handle the 2024 election. I don’t think this is what will come to pass, if I had to guess I’d say it’ll be a tough fight that the media will eat up with a spoon.