by Viviana Mazza
The former president coins a nickname for the governor, the most formidable rival in 2024, who has scored 10 points in polls from January to date
FROM OUR REPORT TO LATROBE (Pennsylvania) – “We’re winning big for the Republican Party nomination in a way we’ve never seen before,” proclaimed Donald Trump. “Let’s see: Trump at 71%, Ron DeSanctimonious at 10%, Mike Pence at 7%. Oh, Mike’s better than I thought… Liz Cheney? In no case is it 4%! Impossible…”.
On Saturday night, on the runway at Latrobe Airport, amid thousands of supporters from rural Pennsylvania who have queued for two hours to see him, Trump declares that he will not immediately make the official announcement that he is running for president will take to the field in 2024 for not “distracting” from the candidates in tomorrow’s midterm vote (“But I promise you that in a very short time you will be very happy”). Then he has a series of slides projected onto the big screen: polls that would show him winning both the party primaries and the duel with Joe Biden. Eventually, he coined one of his infamous nicknames for the most powerful rival for the nomination: Florida Gov. DeSantis, aka DeSanctimonious (bigoted, self-righteous). Apparently he tried the nickname on friends for a couple of weeks and discarded others: fat, whiny. But the poll isn’t very fresh: In a Politico-Morning Consult poll, DeSantis (who has yet to officially apply) earned 10 points, from 14% in January to 24% in October. Trump, on the other hand, is still at 49%, cemented by a subculture that combines worship of the leader with rejection of traditional politicians, even Republicans, while embracing the party’s traditional culture struggles, from abortion to immigration, with evangelical fervor (“God is my savior, Trump is my president,” as one flag summed up).
At rallies on opposite Florida shores yesterday, Trump and DeSantis faced each other from afar, forcing local political difficulties to choose: the Donald was there to support Senator Marco Rubio; the governor had not been invited. The ex-president must feel the breath on his neck. Ron’s wife, former TV host Casey DeSantis, who is of Italian descent and a Catholic, posted a video explaining how God created DeSantis on day eight (after resting). “God looked at the sky he planned and said, I need a protector. So God created a fighter ».
de santo? There’s little to joke about, as this family man is a reminder to Republicans that they can have a younger, more handsome version of Trump with no side effects (including investigations). By doing away with masks and distance learning in schools during the pandemic, while wowing the “grassroots” with provocations like sending a plane full of migrants from the wealthy Martha’s Vineyard Liberals, DeSantis aligned with the Trump brand. He also pursued the idea of the Trump Cards, the badges for the most loyal financiers. And if Trump has appointed three Supreme Court justices critical to the removal of Roe v. Wade, federal abortion watchdog, told DeSantis he was “proud” to have implemented a 15-week ban on abortion, no exceptions for cases of rape or incest, banned gender identity education in schools up to the age of 9, and , yesterday, hormone treatments for transgender minors.
The former president resents being “ungrateful,” as Trumpians define him, and has repeatedly said that when DeSantis asked him for confirmation to run for governor in 2018, “no one knew him,” but Donald would have “made a little tweet, bing bing,” which would instantly catapult him from 3% to 20%. DeSantis will be reconfirmed as governor tomorrow, but in a televised debate he refused to say if he is ready to commit to all 4 years of his mandate. Perhaps Trump thinks he can dissuade him. He slammed Fox TV for a poll showing the rival at the top, he retweeted presenter Megyn Kelly (whom he has insulted in the past) for saying DeSantis can only win if Trump “decides not to run or dies”. But Peter Thiel, Joe Rogan and maybe Elon Musk would prefer it. If Trump’s nominees don’t advance to midterm, that could embolden DeSantis, who for now is trying not to alienate the sympathies of voters roiled by allegations of cheating in 2020 while he’s taunting one of the Republicans they’re desperate to talk about, the Senate approval indicates otherwise.
November 6, 2022 (Change November 6, 2022 | 23:00)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED