Trump went after DeSantis Man tonight in a statement and told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday,
“If he [DeSantis] did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”
To Fox:
Trump earlier this week warned DeSantis against seeking the White House in 2024 during an interview with Fox News. “I don’t know if he is running,” he told the network. “I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly.”
To Daily Beast:
“Trump’s going to end up doing to DeSantis and his wife what he did to Cruz and his wife,” an adviser [to Trump] told The Daily Beast.
...
“an average REPUBLICAN Governor”
“I then got Ron by the ‘Star’ of the Democrat Party, Andrew Gillum (who was later revealed to be a ‘Crack Head’), by having two massive Rallies with tens of thousands of people at each one. I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart.”
Elsewhere, the ex-president accused DeSantis of “playing games” over not addressing if he intends to run for president in 2024.
“Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer"...
...
...Trump...claimed he ordered the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to stop the ballot counting in the 2018 Florida Governor race, allowing DeSantis a narrow win.
“I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen.”
The FBI declined to comment and the DOJ didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Trump’s claim.
...
NYT (Haberman):
..now, advisers say, Trump is quicker to anger and frequently in a state of near-rage about not being president anymore.
On Monday night in Dayton, Mr. Trump referred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi...as an “animal” because she led the effort to impeach him twice as president.
...
Trump had to be talked out of announcing his own presidential campaign on Monday night (!😂!) by advisers, family members and Republican leaders...
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What to make of this? Depends on whose camp you ask. To DeSantis people it means Trump knows DeSantis is a real threat in 2024. To Trump people, DeSantis and his wife and his children are going to get beaten by "Muhammad Ali."
So I turned to a third camp, David Frum, former Obama adviser, in an interview in The Atlantic. I find this the most compelling:
David Frum: DeSantis wants the top job in the Republican Party. But to date...He’s not challenged Trump on anything—not on election denial, not on Ukraine, not on taking government documents and stashing them at Mar-a-Lago. Indeed, when he’s spoken, he’s given Trump his backing. He has put himself in a subordinate position, and now he’s challenging one of the most aggressive and abusive figures in American politics. He’s going to have to stand up to that or be crushed by it.
It’s Republicans’ preferred sexual position.
David: So far, DeSantis says remarkably little about anything that is difficult. I don’t think I’ve been able to find a word that he’s spoken, for example, about the war in Ukraine since its outset, over which Republicans are divided—some stand with Ukraine, some against, and we can’t tell where Ron DeSantis is. That’s a good path if you are content to end your career as governor of a state. But if you want to get the party nomination away from the current frontrunner, who is this domineering presence, you have to do more than that.
Kelli: And yet, DeSantis isn’t exactly a picture of docility.
David: That’s what makes DeSantis’s subordination to Trump so striking. He has been very aggressive toward other targets. His message is that he’s a fighter; that was his closing ad in his gubernatorial-reelection campaign. He picks fights with the Walt Disney Company. He picks fights with school teachers. He picked fights with high-school students who wore masks in his presence. He’s willing to fight with just about everybody. But those people don’t have the job he wants. Donald Trump does, as the leader of the Republican Party. And so far, he has not done anything to challenge that job.
Isn't this the GOP in a nutshell? They are bullies! A bully only picks on weaker people, Mickey Mouse, teachers, kids. And of course Trump is the biggest bully ever! No one else in the GOP will stand up to Trump, nobody ever has.
David Frum:
But if you are going to challenge Trump, you have to fight him, because he’s going to fight. He’s going to call DeSantis names; he’s going to verbally abuse his loved ones and his children. That’s the Trump way. And if you just take it, you end up looking like a weak person in a party where strength is the thing they care about most.
In 2015, during the presidential race, he insulted Jeb Bush’s wife. Jeb Bush later stood on a debate stage beside Donald Trump and demanded that Donald Trump apologize. Trump refused. And Jeb Bush was left to stammer and yammer. That’s the game, and this is Ron DeSantis’s opponent.
David Frum:
...Trump has been a very unsuccessful politician compared with other people
in the party. He lost the popular vote in 2016, and he lost the House
in 2018. He lost both the popular vote and the electoral college
in 2020. His interventions cost Republicans two Senate seats in 2021,
and with them control of the U.S. Senate. Now you have the 2022
underperformance by Republicans. ...
And for me that's the beauty part of all of this. Agree with me or disagree with me, at least give me credit for being consistent. Republicans are so afraid of Trump that they are willing to let Trump humiliate them personally, burn their house down, and would let Trump burn the country down too! Trump is in "a state of near-rage" and at his most sober he did not always act even in his own best interests—but having to be talked out of announcing ON MONDAY NIGHT (!😂!)—the dumb ass will announce his 2024 run on Tuesday--and help Warnock defeat Walker. Run Trump Run!DeSantis Man doesn't have the courage to enter the ring with Ali. It is so much a part of Republican DNA to be a bully, which is a coward on the other side of that coin, that DeSantis (Girly) Man will not fight, therefore he will not challenge Trump--he told financial supporters in June he would not run if Trump did--no other Republican will fight, therefore challenge, Trump and Trump will win the GOP nomination for 2024 without opposition. And lose to Biden.
