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Former president Donald Trump and wannabe president Ron DeSantis (R-FL) both campaigned in Florida yesterday. And they were nowhere near each other. In fact, they were hundreds of miles apart and both wanted to keep it that way. Trump is stumping for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and DeSantis is stumping for himself. Trump did not invite DeSantis to come along and DeSantis did not invite Trump to come along. Trump thinks he owns DeSantis, but the governor doesn't see it that way. They are potential rivals in 2024 and neither one wants to do anything to help the other one.
If Trump announces a run on Nov. 14, as some people expect him to do (see above), all eyes will be on DeSantis as probably the only candidate who could successfully challenge Trump for the presidential nomination. But DeSantis is much smarter than Trump and will look very closely at the 2022 results before trying to challenge the throne. If Trump's candidates up and down the line all win, DeSantis may decide that Trump is too strong and he will have to wait until 2028. However, if Trump's candidates do badly on Tuesday, DeSantis may conclude that Trump isn't that powerful after all and could mount a challenge.
Neither has criticized the other in public yet, at least not directly. However, Jared Kushner has criticized the airplane flights of immigrants from Texas to Florida and then to Martha's Vineyard, saying that the immigrants were "political pawns." Kushner should be taken seriously here; he's an expert in using immigrants as political pawns. On the other hand, a GOP strategist close to DeSantis said Trump "is Dr. Frankenstein coming to Florida to try and kill the monster that has gotten out of control."
On the other hand, Trump has now found a way to insult DeSantis. He has a nickname for him: Ron DeSanctimonious. Actually, the former president didn't think it up. Trump doesn't know words that big. Roger Stone thought it up. Trump gave the new nickname a tryout in a speech on Saturday, saying. "Trump at 71. Ron DeSanctimonious at 10 percent. Mike Pence at 7—oh, Mike Pence doing better than I thought." To us, this indicates that Trump is worried that DeSantis will indeed challenge him for the presidential nomination. It is probably true that Trump leads by a lot now, but that is because DeSantis is not so well known outside Florida. However, DeSantis has $200 million in his campaign account and that could go a long way to making him better known nationwide if he decides to run in 2024. And one 5-minute phone call to Ken Griffin could run that up to $400 million in a jiffy. He would pitch himself as the next generation of Trumpism, but without the baggage.
This somewhat under-the-radar back and forth has made other Florida politicians nervous, as they may be forced to pick sides, something none of them want to do since although Trump is the gold medal winner in grudge-holding, DeSantis is the silver medal winner. But maybe they need not be so nervous. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said of them: "I don't think the prizefighters care about the undercard." (V)