The two are widely seen in the Republican Party as potential rivals for the 2024 presidential nomination and public contrasts and behind-the-scenes tensions have already erupted.
“He does not strike me as someone sitting around thinking, I’m not going to do this because it’s going to annoy President Trump,” said Republican strategist Rob Jesmer, speaking of DeSantis.
“There are a lot of establishment Republicans that would come home for DeSantis,” said David Jolly, a former Republican congressman from Florida who served with DeSantis and now identifies as an independent. DeSantis, he said, “has adopted Trump’s playbook in Florida and he does Trump-like things … but he’s actually arm’s-length from Trump.
Trump has been active on the campaign trail this year, choosing sides in contested primaries and hitting the trail in the general election. He campaigned for Rep. Ted Budd, the GOP’s Senate nominee in North Carolina, on Friday in Wilmington, N.C. “That was a way to virtue signal against Trump and do all this other stuff,” he said. “They’re basically doing it so that they feel good, but they don’t want to actually have to deal with the consequences of the policies that they advocate for all of you.”
“DeSantis is every bit as good as Trump is at creating earned media appearances, earned media moments that help him stay in the news and help him appeal to conservative voters,” said strategist John Feehery.