Dem
51
GOP
49
Did you think the upcoming epic battle between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis would be about the issues? Like who will cut taxes for rich people more? Or who will be better at punishing woke corporations? Could be, but the initial round seems to be each one attacking the other's sex life. DeSantis recently brought up the Manhattan D.A.'s case by saying: "Look, I don't know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair." The meaning of the statement is extremely vague but it does bring up the subject of Trump having sex with a porn star. Trump responded by suggesting that DeSantis had an affair with underage female students and maybe with a man, even though there is weak evidence for the former (basically, one ambiguous photo) and no evidence at all for the latter.
Is this an aberration, and soon we will get back to taxes, immigration, and the like? Don't count on it. Trump wants to get under DeSantis' skin and thinks that hitting him on personal things might do it since DeSantis tries very hard to keep his private life out of his campaign. DeSantis, for his part, knows that at least some evangelicals don't like pornography or adultery, and tying Trump to both of them in one neat package might peel off some of them.
Private communications picked up by Rolling Stone suggest that Trump will soon attack DeSantis' voice for being effeminate. It's only a small step from there to being gay, right? Well, no, it isn't, but Trump wants to plant the seed.
The reality is that while their focuses are different and their styles are very different, waging a battle on the issues will be be tough for both candidates because they have similar views on many of them. These include taxes (cut them for rich people), immigration (stop it), crime (shoot first, ask questions later), inflation (it's Biden's fault), fossil fuels (good), sustainable energy (bad), abortion (murdering babies), and many other issues. There probably aren't enough policy differences to base a campaign on them, so there is going to be a lot of personal attacks and discussions of "character." These are only the first ones. Expect a lot more. (V)