The Nosedive of Ron DeSantis
The DeSantis base in Florida is a microcosm of the wider, deeper, more intense Trump base. The people who love Donald Trump; like DeSantis.
Roger Stone
Mar 28
https://rogerstone.substack.com/p/the-no...of-ron-desantis


There can be no doubt that all the suspense, including the discussion of whether President Donald Trump would be handcuffed and perp-walked in New York in a flawed politically motivated indictment by a County Prosecutor, has both galvanized and increased Trump's base. Based on polling, Trump is soaring and regaining the support of many MAGA voters who wondered whether he is their strongest candidate for 2024.

We know from history that the American people rally to Trump when they perceive that he is under unfair and partisan attack. Indeed, Trump's poll standing and fundraising soared in the aftermath of the FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach. Polling suggests that this phenomena is repeating itself, as Trump has sparred with prosecutors at both the State and Federal level. To say that his chief would-be rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has handled this badly would be an understatement.

The Governor and his wife really don't understand that the DeSantis base in Florida is a microcosm of the wider, deeper, more intense Trump base. The people who love Donald Trump; like DeSantis.

Laura Loomer and I have been pummeled online for "dividing the MAGA movement" by correctly predicting that Ron DeSantis—who owes his governorship completely and solely to the endorsement of President Donald J. Trump—has been plotting a presidential bid against his patron. I wrote about it here on Stone Cold Truth previously. You can see that analysis here.

Stone Cold Truth with Roger Stone
The Not-So-Secret Plan Of Governor Ron DeSantis

RON'S FIRST BLUNDER

Governor Ron DeSantis had wisely remained tightlipped about the President, refusing to be taunted by Trump's Truth Social attacks into a response, then broke his silence and made a series of political blunders that left him weakened. Remember again that the DeSantis base is a subset of the Trump base. DeSantis' initial refusal to get involved, coupled with a recycle of the Democrat talking points about Trump's problems in New York ..."I don't know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair..." To Trump supporters, this is "kicking" the man while he is under attack. Other Republicans were rallying to the President about the outrageousness of the politically motivated hit job being considered by a Manhattan grand jury (which is extraduinarily anti-Trump in its overehelmingly Democrat makeup, based on the demographics of the jurisdiction from which it was chosen).

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RON'S SECOND BLUNDER

Rather than recognize this blunder, DeSantis and his wife decided that he would double down and unleash a flurry of attacks on the besieged but combative Trump. In an interview for television and print with The New York Post, DeSantis attacked both Trump's "chaotic" leadership style and his moral character.

Strangely, DeSantis did not question Trump's moral character when Trump single handedly catapulted DeSantis to the Florida Republican gubernatorial nomination, or when Trump dragged DeSantis over the finish line in the 2018 election by changing his own schedule to hold three rallies in Florida in the final two weeks of the campaign. The Congressman's narrow victory came after two poor showings in debates with Democrat candidate Mayor Andrew Gillum.

Breaking his silence, the Governor made a series of bad moves at the worst possible time. By all measures and polls, Trump's surge in the polls is impressive—while the DeSantis bungling has caused him to drop.

Trump partisans argue that DeSantis has used his book tour promotion as a soft money funded pre-launch for his presidential bid. How coincidental that he has just announced additional book

tour appearances in early primary and caucus states, after visiting Iowa, the state with the first Republican presidential nominating contest.

DeSantis spent heavily to dominate network, cable, digital, and Spanish-language media advertising and ran an aggressive digital campaign for "fundraising" targeting Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Georgia, and in donor-rich parts of New York, Southern California, Texas, as well as having a heavy presence on national conservative net and cable-based media. While this media spending produced a brief surge for DeSantis in the immediate wake of the 2020 election, it appears that the bloom is off the rose.

Polls in Florida briefly showed that DeSantis would beat the former President—but only in the wake of this campaign spending. Now, however, polling shows that the halo of victory and that massive media spending is wearing off, with a new poll showing Trump pulling ahead of DeSantis in Florida based solely on his domination of the news and with the use of no paid advertising. The narrowness of Trump's retaking the lead in the Sunshine State is a testimony to his strength, rather than his "weakness."

I handicapped the Don versus Ron drama for OAN.

That was not DeSantis' only bungle. Only days prior, DeSantis had reinvented himself as a skeptic about the war in Ukraine. Whereas previously he had been a full-throated supporter of the coup in Ukraine against a democratically-elected government staged by the Obama State Department and our intelligence services. Tara Palmeri of Puck noted that "his [DeSantis] declaration on Ukraine was a flop that required cleanup."

Recognizing that the America First majority is dominated by Republicans growingly skeptical of the wisdom of shipping billions of dollars to Ukraine while flirting with WWIII, to sound like Trump DeSantis downgraded Ukraine to a "territorial dispute" and downplayed the danger the Russians pose to the United States.

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Ron tried to ape Trump's view that Russia was not the greatest threat to the United States, although he did not go so far as to say that the Chinese are. When DeSantis' globalists backers went crazy about this repositioning, the Governor undercut himself by blurting out that "Putin is a war criminal" in order to satisfy his war in Ukraine-loving donors.

RON THE RINO

It's important to recognize how efficiently and ruthlessly Governor Ron DeSantis used the Florida state aircraft and a vigorous out-of-state fundraising drive to build a money machine dominated by establishment Republicans, neocons, globalists, and Bush-Cheney Republicans. DeSantis has shielded access to records that would show how often he used the state aircraft and where it flew him to- claiming that disclosure of such records "would threaten his security." In fact, it's an egregious violation of the state's Sunshine Law.

On the other hand, if money was the determining factor in Republican presidential nomination politics, former Texas Governor and Treasury Secretary John Connally would have vanquished Ronald Reagan.

The fervent support of Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, Megan McCain, and financiers like Ken Griffin have come to the attention of many of Trump's supporters. For many outside of Florida, a man is identified by those he surrounds himself with or gets substantial financial or political support from. Despite his recitation of America First rhetoric, many are getting hip to the fact that DeSantis is, in fact, the candidate of the anti-Trump Republican establishment.

Karl Rove slipping on Fox News calling the DeSantis campaign "our campaign" betrays DeSantis' own background and political positioning. The Governor and his wife recognize the power of America First issues such as illegal immigration, health freedom, public school curriculum, and exposing children to drag shows—but in reality he is an establishment Republican who only jumped on the Trump train after Trump became President. The embrace of the culture wars is reminiscent of Karl Roves' shameless manipulation of the same sex marriage issue to help George W. Bush.

In fact, in an interview in 2016, DeSantis refused to endorse Donald Trump before Trump won the presidential nomination. DeSantis became a Trump supporter the minute Trump was elected President. But a stunning piece in the New York Times tells us who Ron DeSantis really is—a Bush-Cheney Republican. -- excerpt, rest at link above --

I'm posting this in preparation for next year's elections. May be useful to have as a reference.