As the 2024 election draws closer, Ron DeSantis has become Trump’s heir apparent—much to the ire of the former president. But can the Florida governor lead the Trump cult of personality with no personality? Read the latest, from gabrielsherman:
of August 19, several hundred conservative activists streamed into the ballroom at the Wyndham Grand hotel in downtown Pittsburgh. The grassroots event was billed as a “Unite and Win” rally for Doug Mastriano, the Donald Trump–backed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate who was campaigning on Trump’s big lie, that Democrats stole the 2020 election. But Mastriano was only the warm-up act for the headliner, who had drawn me and members of the national press corps to Pennsylvania: Ron DeSantis.
Of course, any path to the 2024 GOP nomination almost certainly runs through Trump. According to two sources briefed on Trump’s plans, the former president considered announcing he was running over the July Fourth holiday but decided to wait. According to a source, Trump told advisers he worried he could be damaged politically if Republicans underperform in the midterms. “He’d rather blame Mitch McConnell for a loss than himself,” a Republican briefed on Trump’s thinking told me.
It’s not just Trump that DeSantis has alienated. “The biggest complaint you hear about DeSantis is that he never says thank you,” a veteran GOP strategist said. “People host events where donors give him enormous sums of money, and he never says thank you.
It’s surprising DeSantis has become Trump’s heir apparent because their backgrounds are so divergent. DeSantis grew up middle class in the Tampa suburb of Dunedin. His mother, Karen, worked as a nurse, and his father, Ron, installed Nielsen television boxes.
In 2015, DeSantis was among a group of nine Republican House members who founded the hard-right Freedom Caucus. He courted the group’s then chairman, Ohio congressman Jim Jordan. “Jim would call Ron from across the room, and Ron would go running over,” the former DeSantis staffer recalled. But DeSantis was dismissive of his peers. “Ron didn’t respect Mark Meadows. I could see it in the way they interacted,” a former staffer said. “Ron hated Kevin McCarthy. Same with Boehner.
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