On Thursday night, Ron DeSantis came to Hillsdale for a definitely-not-a-presidential-campaign dinner put on by Hillsdale College. The Governor and I even got a photo together. Immediately before then I told the Governor that he should wait to run for President until 2028.
What can I say, I’m loyal to my President—Donald J. Trump. DeSantis, to his credit, was a good sport about it.
The event at Hillsdale involved a reception for DeSantis, a dinner with 650 guests invited by the college (including yours truly), and an after dinner conversation with the college President, Dr. Larry Arnn.
My sense of DeSantis from meeting the man is that he is George W. Bush with an IQ two-standard deviations higher. He does have real virtues—which makes his ongoing spat with and (likely) impending betrayal of Trump all the more disappointing. DeSantis has energy and he’s done some good things. I don’t want to see him ruin those accomplishments with a political suicide run against Trump.
DeSantis spent virtually the whole after dinner speech talking about his wins—many of which actually sound pretty good. He has an above average understanding of the administrative state and of corporate power. He is, by far, the most talented ‘Freedom Caucus’ alumnus out there. That’s a low bar, admittedly, but it isn’t nothing. DeSantis grasps that elected officials, especially executives, are rewarded by doing things.
This is very hard for the average GOP grifter former-real-estate-agent-slash-used-car-salesman-turned-politician to figure out but DeSantis has learned this. DeSantis also knows a thing or two about the Founding and how constitutional government is supposed to work. He quoted, for instance, Alexander Hamilton’s line about needing “energy in the executive” from Federalist 70. I can definitely tell that he’s had time with the Claremont Institute folks. Of course, I already knew this from my own sources in the Claremont universe—of which I myself am a small part (in distant planetary orbit). But it does seem that DeSantis is paying attention to their lessons. His brain, in other words, does work, at least some of the time.
DeSantis’ problem, however, is that he doesn’t grasp the real nature of the American regime. Sorry, fam, but knowing a few quotes from The Federalist ain’t gonna cut it. And his ego has gotten too big. DeSantis, as his months long spat with Trump indicates, is way out over his skis. He isn’t ready for primetime but he doesn’t know it.
DeSantis never should have allowed the war of words to develop with Trump because he should have made clear, from the very moment that Trump declared, that he would not run against his former ally and benefactor in 2024. This is easy stuff. DeSantis does not benefit from being attacked by Trump. But he won’t do what is necessary to heal the rift because he is, quite obviously, seriously considering running for President himself.
Put simply, he isn’t properly reading the room. Trump is The Man in 2024. There is no path forward for DeSantis in the GOP primary. He simply will not be able to win in the upper midwest among blue collar voters. I doubt he can even win Florida in a primary battle with Trump. DeSantis isn’t getting boat parades. I live in Michigan full time and one could be forgiven for believing that Donald Trump was running for Governor, Senate, and the local House seat based off of the number of pro-Trump signs and flags that dot every rural county in the state. Same thing in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, etc.
DeSantis is a comparative non-entity in these places. He’s popular among wealthy college educated Republicans—like the ones who went to Thursday’s Hillsdale dinner. Among everyone else, he simply doesn’t move the needle. Most polls have Trump up by double digits (around 28 points) over DeSantis. My guess is that a primary fight would drive that gap even wider. Trump is loved. DeSantis is liked—assuming GOP voters even know who he is.
I’ve been to three Trump rallies. When the man himself steps off the jet onto the stage, it is utterly electric. Trump has charisma, good humor, and swagger. He’s in a totally different category than everyone else in American political life. People appreciate DeSantis “because of his policies.” People love Trump because he’s awesome.
That DeSantis would run against Trump after Trump endorsed him in 2018—ensuring he would win the governorship—leaves a bad taste in my mouth. That DeSantis would make a declaration NOW after Trump has come under attack from the entire liberal-dominated American legal establishment is nothing short of complete betrayal.
Trump fought for the American people and he’s been rewarded with an utter onslaught from every power center in the country and now “hard core conservatives” want to plunge the knife in his back. For goodness’ sake, DeSantis even ran the below ad in 2018 while campaigning as Governor… but he’s going to attack Trump now, when he’s down? Not cool:
DeSantis had a couple of oblique jabs at Trump during his speech at the College. Really petty stuff in which he said he himself didn’t “listen to Fauci” during COVID. He also had lines in there about how, unlike other Republicans, he hadn’t had any leaks in his administration, which is pretty clearly directed at Trump, I think. Again, cringe.
If you’re going to attack Trump then just come out and do it, Ron. Don’t play this highschool freshman girl game.
My political advice to DeSantis is simple: DON’T RUN. You still have time! Pull back before it is too late! I genuinely think that DeSantis could be a very good President. There is certainly a lot more he could do as Governor. But if he wants to win on the national level then he needs Trump’s blessing and endorsement. Together, the two men would be a powerful force for the American Right.
DeSantis should endorse Trump and then work to support him in 2024. It is in his best interest to do this. Trump is nearly 80 and he needs a successor who will carry his agenda forward. DeSantis could be that guy but it is clear from his silence and the ongoing stalking horse social media campaign on his behalf, that he wants to grasp the brass ring RIGHT NOW. Dumb.
Trump won on the Big Four issues in 2016: immigration, trade, war, and crime. Trump campaigned on building the wall, protecting American industry, non-intervention overseas, and cracking down on lawlessness. That was a brilliant platform and it delivered him the most shocking political victory of the post-war era. The liberal uniparty consensus had ruled all of those issues off the table. Mass immigration, permanent global empire for gay rights, and “free trade” (outsourcing to China) were going to be the rule—forever. Trump proved that consensus wrong.
DeSantis is decent on immigration (he wants to deport illegals) and he seems okay on crime (he fired state officials who weren’t enforcing the laws and cleaned up elections). Great. Good for Big Ron. But on foreign policy he was silent at Thursday’s dinner and he’s been a mess everywhere else. DeSantis is positioning himself for a presidential run but he can’t articulate a consistent sensible position on the Ukraine or on foreign trade. On the Ukraine issue, he sounds like Joe Biden.
That is a huge problem. Even if DeSantis wins the presidency on his preferred platform of “fighting woke” (not gonna happen but bear with me) that domestic agenda will be undone the minute a foreign war breaks out (and it will: the national security establishment will make sure of that). George W. Bush, if you remember, didn’t run on the War in Iraq in 2000. Barack Obama didn’t run on war with Libya in 2008. Joe Biden didn’t campaign on war with Russia in 2020. But look what happened in all of those cases.
If a President doesn’t actively resist the interventionist neocon/liberal establishment he WILL be sucked into an overseas war. Period. Trump is the only President of my lifetime who didn’t start a new conflict on his watch. An incredible feat in its own right and part of why they hate him so much.
Trade is also critical. By endorsing “free” trade DeSantis shows that he doesn’t understand the real threat to the nation-state in our time. If we cannot build or acquire the basic necessities of life here at home then we cannot be a country. Point blank. Outsourcing good, high-paying, manufacturing jobs to China and India absolutely wrecked the white working class in America. DeSantis is for continuing that policy. On this issue, he’s simply dead wrong. For his part, Donald Trump was the man who taught me what a shitshow free trade has been for the country. I am deeply grateful for that lesson. It is part of the reason I am going to vote for him a fifth and sixth time in 2024. On trade, Trump was smarter than I was. I respect that.
DeSantis is the answer to a question that only college educated white people in conservative suburban areas are asking. What these people want is a “respectable” Republican candidate who also “gets stuff done.” They’re trying to thread a needle that doesn’t matter. DeSantis simply doesn’t have a market for his services on the national scale. He isn’t ready for primetime and he isn’t ready to go to war with the entire federal government—which is what would happen if he ran for President as a real conservative (assuming that he even does so).
I implore DeSantis or any of his people, should they read my humble internet blog, to RECONSIDER. DeSantis staffers: Do not betray your boss by giving him bad advice. Don’t burn through your $200 million warchest on a fool’s errand that will end up with all of you looking for new grift opportunities as state legislative aides for $45k a year. Don’t go to war with Trump along with the entirety of the American Left.
This is a friend/enemy moment. Trump is a friend. He’s also the Right’s leader. He made the MAGA agenda into a political force and he desperately needs our support after the indictment. He did a lot of good and I don’t know who today could have done any better considering that Trump was trying to defend the older American way of life from virtually every power center in the nation as President. Remember, the Left staged a straight up communist coup in the summer of 2020, along with a global pandemic, just to try and get Trump out of office.
DeSantis is not a solution to that problem. If he is going to be a solution in the future then he needs to get clear on the real threats facing the country. He needs to speak out on our fraudulent and illegitimate election procedures, he needs to denounce America’s involvement in the Ukraine war, and he needs to call for a return of American manufacturing through tarriffs and restrictions on outsourcing and mass immigration.
Until that happens, DeSantis will just be another Mr. Republican with a big smile, big ego, and little future.
110% correct !!