By STEVE PEOPLES and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis have been on a collision course from the beginning.
Eyeing the Florida governor as his most formidable foe throughout the Republican Party, the previous president has sought to maintain DeSantis in his place, typically noting the function his endorsement performed in lifting the comparatively obscure congressman to the chief of certainly one of America’s largest states.
DeSantis, for his half, has lengthy praised Trump and mimicked his fashion, however has notably declined to place apart his personal White House ambitions as the previous president prepares to hunt his previous job once more. In the clearest signal of pressure, the 2 held dueling Florida rallies within the closing days of this yr’s midterm elections. At his occasion, Trump unveiled his new derisive nickname for DeSantis, calling him Ron DeSanctimonious.
The simmering rivalry between the Republican Party’s largest stars enters a brand new, extra risky section after the GOP’s underwhelming efficiency in what was purported to be a blockbuster election yr. DeSantis, who gained a commanding reelection, is more and more considered because the celebration’s future, whereas Trump, whose most popular candidates misplaced races from Pennsylvania to Arizona, is extensively blamed as a drag on the celebration.
That leaves Trump in maybe his most weak place since he sparked the violent rebel on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. As he strikes ahead with plans to announce a 3rd presidential bid on Tuesday, Trump is popping to a playbook that has served him by way of many years of non-public, monetary and political turmoil: zeroing in on his enemies’ perceived weaknesses and hitting them with repeated assaults.
“This is how President Trump fights,” mentioned Michael Caputo, a longtime adviser who labored on Trump’s first marketing campaign.
In the times since Tuesday’s election, Trump has made racist remarks about Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, one other potential Republican presidential candidate, saying his title sounds Chinese. He’s blasted protection from Fox News, which, like a lot of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, has shifted its tone on Trump in current days. But a lot of his vitriol is directed at DeSantis, an indication of the risk Trump perceives from the Florida governor.
In a prolonged assertion, Trump knocked DeSantis as an “average REPUBLICAN governor with great Public Relations” and voiced fury that DeSantis has not publicly dominated out difficult him.
The method recollects Trump’s technique in 2016, when he cleared a area of almost a dozen rivals with a scorched-earth method that included insulting his then-rival Ted Cruz’s spouse’s look and claiming that his father might have performed a task in John F. Kennedy’s assassination. (Cruz later turned a prime ally in Congress.)
His assaults solely turn into extra ruthless when he discovered himself in opposition to the wall. After the discharge of the “Access Hollywood” tape, during which Trump used vulgar language to brag of sexual assault, he responded by inviting the ladies who accused his rival Hillary Clinton’s husband, the previous president, of rape and undesirable sexual advances to a presidential debate.
“The strategy worked in 2016, no doubt about it. The difference now, and I say this with all respect for Ron DeSantis, he’s never entered the ring with a pugilist like Donald Trump,” mentioned longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, who ran his 2016 major marketing campaign. “Mike Tyson has an old saying: Everyone had a plan until you get punched in the face.”
The query is whether or not the insults will land in a different way with regards to DeSantis. Among lots of Trump’s most loyal backers, DeSantis is seen as a member of the identical group. In interviews during the last yr at Trump’s rallies and different conservative gatherings, Trump supporters typically mentioned they see DeSantis as Trump’s pure successor. Many voiced disbelief that the 2 males would ever run in opposition to one another as a result of they appear so carefully aligned.
DeSantis’ allies count on the governor to make a presidential announcement after the state legislative session, which ends in May. Until then, they count on him to deal with governing and keep away from partaking straight with Trump, as he has executed this week.
Regardless of when a proper presidential marketing campaign is introduced, DeSantis’ supporters are encouraging him to reap the benefits of the curiosity he’s producing in the meanwhile. Some level to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a cautionary story, noting he generated widespread consideration in 2012 as a possible presidential candidate. He demurred, and by the point he sought the White House in 2016, the vitality had shifted to Trump.
“If you want to run for president, you’ve got to take your shot when it presents itself,” mentioned Matt Caldwell, a vocal DeSantis ally in Florida.
DeSantis gained reelection by a virtually 20-point margin, performing nicely even in lots of longtime Democratic strongholds. That victory, his supporters say, demonstrates the extent of his political attraction past the GOP’s hardcore base, which stands in distinction with Trump. Caldwell famous that DeSantis’ coalition included Latinos and suburban voters, voting blocs that Trump has largely alienated.
“The coalitions he’s built, the bridges he’s built, the voting groups that never touched a Republican before have now embraced Republicans and Republicanism in the form of the DeSantis administration,” mentioned Brian Ballard, a longtime Florida lobbyist who served as DeSantis’ inaugural chairman and likewise raised hundreds of thousands for Trump. “He is certainly a leader and someone that I think has demonstrated the type of coalition building that we need to win back the White House.”
Above all, Republican strategists say voters are searching for a winner.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, who has vacillated on Trump through the years, mentioned lots of his listeners are prepared for DeSantis.
“They love Trump, thank him, wish him well and are ready to part ways,” Erickson mentioned. “Trump voters like Trump because they like winners who fight. That’s exactly how they perceive DeSantis. The only guy between the two who is a loser is Trump.”
Sensing weak point, some Republican institution insiders have begun a sequence of preliminary conversations about the right way to use their sources to cease Trump in 2024, realizing {that a} crowded major area would possibly merely divide the citizens and permit Trump a neater path to the nomination. There is little signal the Republican institution is prepared or in a position to unify behind DeSantis or any single Trump different, nonetheless, at the same time as some distinguished Republicans start to overtly decry Trump as a political legal responsibility.
Other potential 2024 candidates, in the meantime, are ready within the wings, with some hoping Trump and DeSantis will bloody one another so badly that voters shall be longing for a much less pugilistic different.
Sarah Longwell, a Trump critic who leads the Republican Accountability Project, mentioned she’s for “anybody but Trump” in 2024, however she’s not essentially enthusiastic about DeSantis.
“I hope there is a robust Republican primary,” Longwell mentioned. “I certainly want every Republican to run against Trump. But I also think the Republican Party can and should do better than a cheap imitation of Trump, which is what I think Ron DeSantis is.”
Next week, DeSantis shall be amongst a number of 2024 Republican prospects gathering in Nevada for a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition. The visitor record contains former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and term-limited Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Trump declined an invite.
The Republican Jewish Coalition’s major benefactor, Miriam Adelson, has vowed to remain impartial within the 2024 Republican major, even after the group aggressively supported Trump within the final election.
Hogan, a fierce Trump critic for years, is more and more anticipated to run for the Republican presidential nomination himself.
“Going forward, there is going to be a battle between whether we are the party that stands for common-sense conservative leadership, or whether we are the party than answers to the whims of one person,” Hogan instructed The Associated Press. “I am sick and tired of the losing and grifting. It’s time to get back to winning.”
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Follow the AP’s protection of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And study extra in regards to the points and components at play within the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”