DeSantis dares to cast Trump as a loser, but has no appetite to tell the full truth | Opinion
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ gloves are officially off.
His initial strategy of avoiding direct confrontation with his former ally-turned-foe Donald Trump proved ineffective in the Republican presidential primary. As he enters the crucial 100 days leading to the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis doesn’t appear worried about alienating Trump’s base as he struggles in national and state polls. In a Thursday campaign stop in Tampa, DeSantis threw all of his spaghetti at the wall.
He said Trump broke his promises, shifted left and failed to make Mexico pay for a border wall (the former president added a few miles of the wall at American taxpayer’s expense). He painted Trump as a loser “who “couldn’t even stop Joe Biden,” Politico reported, and suggested he’s too old. DeSantis also compared his own landslide reelection in 2022 to Trump’s measly three-point win in the Sunshine State in 2020.
Meanwhile, a super PAC backing DeSantis has a slew of online videos bashing Trump on anything from abortion to his allowing transgender women to compete at the Miss Universe, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“Here’s just the reality. If you want to know who’s done more to actually implement and deliver on America First policies, the person that’s done that more than anyone else in these United States is right here,” DeSantis told a crowd in downtown Tampa.
There’s one obvious line of attack against the former president — and this should’ve been low-hanging fruit — DeSantis has largely ignored: Trump is dangerous to American democracy. Obviously, there’s not a lot of appetite among GOP voters to hear about Trump’s role inciting the Jan. 6 riot. His popularity has only grown after he was indicted twice for his efforts to overturn the 2020 elections.
And, granted, those attacks coming from DeSantis would sound hypocritical. The governor displayed his own anti-democratic instincts when he punished Disney for exercising its right to free speech and opposing an anti-gay bill, muzzled what teachers and academics can say in classrooms and neutered the role of the legislative branch in being a check and balance on his power.
With the exception of Chris Christie, you hardly hear any indignation from other GOP candidates over Trump openly vowing to attack democratic institutions and concentrate as much power as possible into his own hands if re-elected. DeSantis’ strongest rebuke of Trump’s role on Jan. 6 came in July, when he said the former president “should have come out more forcefully” to stop the rioters. Trying to have it both ways, DeSantis also accused the investigation into Trump’s actions of being politically motivated.
Trump has promised to wrest control from the U.S. Justice Department, prosecute his political rivals and bring regulatory agencies under his control. We couldn’t think of a bigger threat to conservative values, but the Republican Party’s populist shift has turned government overreach into they seem to think is a necessary evil to put “America First.”
At this point, calling out Trump’s attacks against American democracy should be a given. But it hasn’t been in our current warped political reality. And that’s appalling.
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