When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he had to vanquish a Florida governor competing for the position, POLITICO reports.
To become president again, he might have to do it once more.
There is much focus politically right now on how the Republican Party will restore itself in the aftermath of midterms in which the GOP was widely expected to win big and ended up winning hardly at all.
Within this is a match-up forming between Trump and current Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Experts say Trump will have to do to DeSantis in 2022, ’23, and into ’24 what he did to former Florida governor Jeb Bush in 2015 and ’16.
Trump is in the first few days of his third try for the White House.
In the estimation of aides and advisers to all three men and dozens of insiders, analysts, and operatives from Florida to Washington and beyond, DeSantis is arguably stronger than he’s ever been, while Trump is arguably weaker than he’s ever been.
The political landscape, and the American landscape in general, is so much different now than it was seven and a half years ago.
Trump went hard against Bush. Experts expect the same behavior to emerge against DeSantis.
The Florida governor is widely expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination. But, unlike Trump, DeSantis has shown no signs of urgency to enter the race now that Trump is in.
“I mean, seriously. We just ran an election,” DeSantis said, as CNN’s Steve Contorno reported. “We have this Georgia runoff coming, which is very important for Republicans to win that Georgia runoff.”
This is a perfect strategy for DeSantis to take – and one that makes Trump look a) needy and b) more focused on himself than the Republican Party.
Trump, on the other hand, looks a bit desperate.
Despite some of his allies advising him to wait to launch his presidential campaign until after the December 6 runoff in Georgia, Trump decided he needed to get in the race immediately. Which, candidly, looks somewhat weak – especially when you consider that Trump has already faced much of the blame for Republicans falling short of expectations in the midterms.
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