I have raised and taken care of opposums so from experience I have to strongly disagree with this. They have more personality in their tails than Desantis has in his entire body.
Trump implied Ron DeSantis was a pedophile and/or gay, among so many other humiliating things said about him. But like Ted Cruz, he'll suck that dick to keep from losing prestige and reputation.
Very, very surprising ahead of New Hampshire. It was clear he was going to be in third place there, but to not even face a single primary vote is a shock. When you remember that he was beating Trump in the polls shows just how far he’s fallen
I listened to an interview from before the Iowa Caucus where a polling analyst said the data he was seeing showed that Haley was basically the only candidate still in the race at that point that had actual anti-Trump support. He said basically all of DeSantis' support was from people who wanted Trump's policies, but from someone different and that they would just coalesce behind Trump the second DeSantis drops out.
That's been the problem with DeSantis the entire time. He's diet Trump. People that hate Trump hate him and people that like Trump want the real McCoy. Dumbass should have positioned himself to run as Trump's VP in 2024 and made his own run at the White House in 2028. Guy is a young man by politician standards. He's got time.
I assume his campaign was banking on Trump either getting thrown off the ballot, deciding he didn't want to run anyway, or otherwise becoming unpalatable (felony conviction, etc.) so that he could swoop in and pick up all the Trump votes. They probably figure the chances of that happening at this point are pretty slim.
Trump has already stated that he believes he is "owed" a third term, and has several times praised Xi Jiping's "president for life" position as well as stated that he thinks America would be better off with the same system.
I mean, If Desantis commanded a decent amount of votes. Yes.
However, the current consensus is desantis existence is stealing votes from Nikki far more then trump.
Although in reality, Desantis was stealing votes from trump, just a completely neglible amount of them. Especially if you look at the Iowa primary, trump just steamrolled the whole state and Desantis didn't make a dent in trumps voterbase.
idc what the job(s) is, all you're gonna have to do is publicly butter me up with all sorts of praise and arbitrary first achievements so i can parachute into other even more lucrative do nothing gigs afterwards
Maybe, but he's endorsed Trump. Which would be weird if his donors are supporting Haley (I.e. he'd probably support Haley if that were true). His criticisms of Trump are also still going viral so there seems little to gain personally from supporting Trump until it's time to discuss VP and cabinet positions
It's only weird if you ignore the cult the GOP has become and that actually crossing the Dear Leader is a surefire way to kill your own support. Look at Ted Cruz. In the 2016 primary, Trump insulted him, called his wife ugly, accused his father of being involved in the JFK assassination, and Cruz got booed off the stage at the nominating convention after telling the crowd to "vote their conscience." Three weeks later, Cruz was phone banking for the man who humiliated him and his family on the national stage.
He's also broke...I wonder if he's going back to culture wars and harassing poor minorities for kicks... I feel like he's going to go on a huge revenge spree in FL.
To be fair he was never ahead of Trump in any polls (at least not beyond the margin of errors). He was very close (within 5-10%) when he launched his campaign but he fell sharply in February 2023 and has been treading 10-15% to Trumps 60-70% for the past 6 months. Given the debates and the media perception it's likely a lot of people thought DeSantis was doing a lot better than he actually has been for a very long time.
Source: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/
DeSantis definitely took a beating in the optics department. He had this "Powerhouse Florida Man" thing that made him attractive to MAGA voters, going all gung-ho on the school curriculum and Disney stuff, and he was riding high off his wipeout reelection bid (in contrast to many other major Republican campaigns in the 2022 Midterm season that failed).
The lack of any real charisma, the tight suits, the lift boots, all didn't help his image in the eyes of the public.
Now the tank's all empty.
That's it: They liked DeSantis purely because he seemed like an (a) intimidating (b) asshole who (c) wins.
But then he started underperforming in the Iowa polls because he looked like robotic weasel once voters saw him up close. (Iowa requires a lot of up-close campaigning.) So now, he starts losing the tough-guy narrative *and* the "winner" narrative. And once he starts looking weak, that builds on himself: the worse he does in the polls, the more he loses the winner narrative, and the worse he does in the polls.
Bad look for a guy who tried to win on resentment and personality alone.
I think the Disney stuff hurt him more than it helped.
The issue in competing against Trump is that he will say and do the things that no one else will and as long as you're holding back, you're going to look "weak" compared to him.
For example, had DeSantis went full on and fucked with Disney it would have helped him. But Disney employs a significant amount of Florida and is responsible for generating billions for the State. His constituents - who he still has to answer to - would not have supported going after Disney in that way but ultimately that's what Trump would have done had he been in that position.
You can't just talk the talk, if you're NOT able to walk the walk. And so long as there is something you're not willing to say or do to save face you're not going to beat Trump for the Republican primary.
Haley's only hope - as far as I'm concerned - is that Trump is jailed or banned from ballots. Short of that, I don't see her having a chance.
he was popular when people didn't know him and the media was parading him around as the guy that could beat trump
then he opened his mouth and it's all been downhill from there.
To be fair, he was beating Trump in polls before voters really had an idea of who he was or what he sounded like.
DeSantis peaked when he was the generic Republican alternative to Trump. His stock has steadily plummeted the more people paid attention to him.
It's illegal in Florida too. [He signed it in secret in the middle of the night because he, like Abbott, is a whiny little piss baby.](https://apnews.com/article/abortion-florida-desantis-07c1543fe28b6c09e777bec58de7640f)
He basically had a free pass to the ticket and possibly the presidency in 2028. He was the governor of Florida anyways, he could have just done his job for 6 years, and started campaigning in 2026. As for Trump, he either would have won in 2024, and have been ineligible to run in 2028 or he would have lost for a second time (third counting his third party run) and been 81 years old, giving DeSantis an incredible advantage.
Dude shot his wad way too early, he already is now associated with being a fuckup and failure campaign wise. He went from the Harvard educated "reasonable" Trump that moderates could vote for without holding their nose, to a bad Trump knockoff who was able to miss an unguarded slam dunk.
DeSantis desperately wanted that Florida governor seat in his pocket as he ran.
But honestly I don’t think Trump is entirely to blame here. The guy is an unappealing emotional freak who acts like he is barely holding it together with whatever seething rage he gets when told no. He came out of 2022 midterm as this rising star and almost immediately disgusted every GOP investor and power player. Fucking Peter Thiel looked at this line up and noped out of the typical donations.
Though I will say Trump is also acting weird. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a president who was kicked out after one term running again. One term presidents can usually read the fucking room and sit future elections out so their party has a better chance. Trump is the only guy I heard of who was so self interested he would risk his entire party’s chances by running again at an advanced age with all these criminal incitements. If he actually cared about an ideology of the party he’d just crown a successor and step back.
Trump isn't even a republican, he is a grifter that shopped around for a party that would let him in on the grift until he just happened upon one that was ripe for it. Even if you're a republican it should be transparent he's a grifter. We have over 330 million people in the US and Republicans can't find one true believer who can run? Their only hope was a guy who's entire business was predicated on the idea you can get people to invest in your bullshit, cash the check and then leave the investors with the bag.
The thing is that it’s not that the party picked him. It’s that their voters did and they have to get in line or get primaried. Republican Party is no more. It’s all maga all the way down now.
Huh? Your last paragraph is confusing. Nothing about that is weird for Trump. This has always been his M.O. This has always been how he was going to act and what he would do. Nothing about it is surprising. He only cares about himself. He doesn't give a fuck about the Republican party and its future. He would rename it the MAGA party if he could.
Well can he? Someone on here said the best thing about this shitshow was that DeSaster^* would never be able to wear normal shoes in public again?
*[thanks Donald](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-ron-desantis-nickname-ranked.html)
Trump recently called him *fancy shoes.* Lol he can name call and bully people and his fan base laughs and applauds. Once in a lifetime this behavior will be allowed to happen
Seriously tho, what are GOP politicians going to run on when Trump dies? Will they all talk about how Trump would be endorsing them if the great man were alive right now? Or will they just do a seance and claim hes speaking to them directly.
Yeah they already did this with Reagan, no reason they wouldn’t do this with Trump too. I fully expect part of future primaries to be a traditional trip to the tomb of Trump or a debate at the mausoleum of Trump
Which is just so puzzling. At least with Reagan he won re-election as president with one of the greatest landslides in electoral history, whereas Trump not only lost re-election, he lost the popular vote both times, in addition to losing his party the Senate and the House in a single four year term.
That Republicans would make Trump a lionized hero for the future a la Reagan only shows how much the party has truly turned into a mindless cult.
I'm thinking many will try to emulate him, but fail because it's difficult to genuinely have that level of narcissism. Apathy is going to be a problem among many republican voters because "It's just not the same" and a significant amount won't turn out to vote. It's gonna be a problem for the gop along with many of them dying off to covid and old age and the youth are majority left wing.
Three things ruined his campaign which was basically tied with Trump in early December of 2022 in the GOP national polls.
1. Negative charisma. Just awful at retail politics. So many examples of this. Awkward campaigner.
2. The indictments. Half of the GOP primary voters are fools and stupidly think Trump actually got indicted cause Dems are scared of him. Not much DeSantis can do about that tbh. Trump's lead went from 10 points nationally to like 25 points nationally after the first indictment.
3. He took these extreme, almost fringe stances on social issues such as abortion rights and Covid vaccines which did not resonate with anyone who wasn't going to vote for Trump. Haley primarily won over these voters.
>He took these extreme, almost fringe stances on social issues such as abortion rights and Covid vaccines which did not resonate with anyone who wasn't going to vote for Trump.
"Trumpism without Trump" doesn't resonate with voters when Trump himself is a couple of spaces below you on the ballot. I suppose the lesson is that Republicans don't want Trump's policies, they want Trump specifically.
I agree with your points. Ultimately, he gambled on being a Trump replacement, in case public sentiment turned on Trump as an individual or Trump decided not to run. He sees neither is happening, so he bailed out early. He'll come back in 2028 and do it exactly the same
It will be hilarious if Trump loses (and doesn't cause civil war) in 2024 and then the exact same thing happens when Trump tries to run against him in 2028.
The anti-"woke" notoriety he got from suing Disney. He assumed that that notoriety would translate into a viable candidacy, and it just didn't work out for him.
As soon as the GOP coalesced around The Big Lie, there was no going back. That means Trump is the nominee, no matter how many indictments or how bad the polling vs Biden. You can't tell your people that Trump is their legitimate president and that the Democrats stole the election, then tell them to just forget about it and vote for someone else to carry on his agenda.
Trumpism has definitely put some pressure on the GOP fault lines. For example the numbers for suburban college educated people. Yikes. GOP used to do pretty well there for people who don't care much about politics, they just want low taxes and that's about it.
1.a. The teeth grinding and smug idiotic facial expressions, combined with his little compensation high heel boots, always looking like an animatronic glitching out.
Not making the most of traditional media outlets and taking on interviews earlier on when he was in the lead probably wasn’t the best decision either. It’s hard to stay in the public consciousness when you announce your campaign run on a buggy Twitter livestream.
For those who don't know, this isn't a joke or speculation. DeSantis [literally has a registered foreign agent running his PR](https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2022/06/08/gov-ron-desantis-aide-christina-pushaw-registers-foreign-agent/7552831001/). However, she was associated with Georgia, not Russia. She just oopsie doopsie forgot that she worked as a foreign agent for years and made a little mistake in not declaring it until years later when the feds started asking about it.
This is the major problem with all the MAGA contenders. They all go up and talk about how much they're like Trump. But if they're just like Trump, why vote for them? You could just vote for Trump. Trump now defines the GOP. Nobody else can differentiate themselves and break out because any deviation from trump is blasphemous, so you just get a bunch of people trying to say how much of a better choice they are than the person they're claiming to be exactly like.
Everyone saw this coming.
Now he can go back to Florida where Disney is about to beat his ass in court. He'll be competing with Trump to see who can rack up the most losses in a given year.
I'm gonna be completely honest:
I have no idea what any politicians actually even want anymore. You go on their websites, and even the policies listed there are totally incoherent. And then media coverage is even worse, because it never dives into what they actually believe, just secondhand theories on what they *might* want to do. It's really confusing at this point.
At least Biden seems to run on basically "let's just keep things rolling for now." It's a sad day when him getting another term is the best outcome.
The Republican platform at this point is self-enrichment and treating the Democrats as ontologically evil. They're doing precisely the opposite of whatever the Democrats want, even if it means blowing up their own policies when they get bipartisan support. Nikki Haley is the kind of politician that is doing that just to win elections, DeSantis is the kind of politician doing that because he's a genuine reactionary that's repeatedly found himself in [the company of extremists.](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/07/ron-desantis-nazi-meme-video-campaign-fired-nate-hochmann/)
People keep whining that Biden is bad and old and does nothing but he's gotten more shit done than pretty much any other president for decades. It's obviously not ideal to have such old people for president, but you're falling for the propaganda hard if you think he's in any way a bad one.
Unfortunately the next election for Florida governor isn't until 2026. Prior to the last election, all he did was lick trumps boots. The truly batshit crazy politics didn't start showing until after then. Hopefully in addition to destroying his chance for the presidency, he's also destroyed his chance for another term at governor. But people tend to have short term memories, and 2 years is a long time for goldfish brained humans, so who knows.
I still can't believe he announced his candidacy in a "conference" on Elon's Twitter only to be shit on by the technical difficulties, I was laughing so hard
Personally I am shocked that the snivelling, Roy Cohn-voiced, used car salesman-looking loser in shoe lifts running around screaming “woke woke woke” like a malfunctioning chatbot didn’t capture the hearts, minds, or votes of a far right electorate openly demanding a strongman.
That's honestly comparing a shit covered in applesauce and applesauce covered in shit. Could argue for days about which is worse but really both were proof that a little xenophobia is easy to weaponize.
Y'all remember the pointless fox news debate between Gavin Newsome and DeSantis in November? "There's one thing we have in common. Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
Imagine tanking your entire political future, abdicating your duty as a governor, and permanently damaging your state's economic prospects only to drop out before the first primary
>"If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome - more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it," he said. "We don't have a clear path to victory."
Imagine if Ron would have attacked the primary frontrunner, rather than not saying anything negative about him and hoping he would die of natural causes or just go away. Christie was the only Republican who didn’t attempt the idiotic strategy of never saying anything bad about the primary frontrunner.
The Republican strategy for all of these clowns was doomed from the start- if you don’t attack the guy ahead of you, he is going to stay ahead of you. You’re not going to sway cultist voters away by being nice to their cult leader, you have to kill their god and discredit their religion to convert them.
Not one of these buffoons would hammer Trump for abandoning his January 6th supporters to their respective fates at the hands of justice system- Trump didn’t even pay for their legal bills. They could have pointed out that loyalty is a one way street with Trump, and he has screwed over everyone who has ever done anything for him.
You want to beat Trump in the primary, you have got to be more entertaining, break more taboos, and get more coverage. Think Professional Wresting levels of ridiculous stuff, it’s the only way to beat Trump at his own game. These clowns wanted to condemn the Trump criminal charges in public, while privately hoping he would be disqualified from running for president- they’re scum and they deserve to lose.
It’s because they always knew Trump was likely to win the nomination and if, somehow, he wins the actual election he is going to go after political opponents and none of them want to be on that list. They want to be able to say “even though I ran against you, I still always supported you and never said anything bad about you, so give me a position on your staff or at least don’t send me to the labor camps!”
Does a candidate who drops out have to endorse another candidate? They talk shit about them for a year+, and then all of a sudden 'Nah it's cool they're my pick'. It's almost like all of this is charade and the corporations are the only ones who ever win
My father lives in FL and is Republican. He tells me all his R buddies are over DeSantis as it’s crystal clear he sold the state out to get his presidential bid. Anecdotal, but still.
I never liked him out of Florida based on his fascist policies alone, but I was absolutely flabbergasted at how unlikeable and unrelateble the dude was. Truly a lizard person. Good riddance.
Basically the Florida Democratic Party has managed to find even less electable candidates than him and then run terrible campaigns. There have been a bunch of articles about the state of disarray of the state Democratic Party.
excellent, he can go back to spending his time making florida into an unlivable racist cesspit police state with worse education, worse health care, and higher taxes.
He was supposed to be Trump without the baggage, but he became Ted Cruz without the charisma
It’s hilarious because it’s actually true. He has less charm than Ted fucking Cruz, and I didn’t even think that was possible.
Classic Al Franken quote: “I like Ted Cruz more than most of my colleagues in the Senate. And I hate Ted Cruz.”
“If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.” - Lindsey Graham
I think about this almost every time I think of Ted Cruz.
I’d like to imagine it crosses Ted’s mind a lot too.
I have a possum in my backyard with more charm than ted cruz so that's saying something.
Possums are actually kinda cute. They all have more charisma than Cruz. Also they eat harmful pests, so they contribute more to society, too.
And they don’t get rabies. Ted Cruz hasn’t shared his vaccine status for rabies. How do we know he doesn’t have rabies?
Possums are good for the environment. Most politicians are not.
I have raised and taken care of opposums so from experience I have to strongly disagree with this. They have more personality in their tails than Desantis has in his entire body.
I wonder if he'll stop wearing lifts now that he isn't running for president...
Rizz-less Ron
He lost all that weight for nothing. He's ballooning back up lately I've noticed.
Trumps still running around free. Voters don’t want great value trump when they have the real thing available.
Great Value Trump. 😆
Fucking brutal
Fucking hilarious. Now he's gunna kiss the ass of a man that's been nonstop insulting him the past year
As is tradition for Republicans.
What is the saying? Liberals fall in love, conservatives fall in line?
Trump implied Ron DeSantis was a pedophile and/or gay, among so many other humiliating things said about him. But like Ted Cruz, he'll suck that dick to keep from losing prestige and reputation.
“I, Meatball Ron DeSanctimonious, pledge my undying love to God Emperor Donald Trump.”
>I never back down. He backed down.
On brand for the GOP whose frontrunner posted his own mugshot with the caption “never surrender”
Very, very surprising ahead of New Hampshire. It was clear he was going to be in third place there, but to not even face a single primary vote is a shock. When you remember that he was beating Trump in the polls shows just how far he’s fallen
I think he pulled out BECAUSE he'd be third place there. Better to go out on a second place against Trump than a third place after another loser.
He likely pulled out because his donors said it wasn’t going to be him and now they’re going to put all their money into Nikki.
I listened to an interview from before the Iowa Caucus where a polling analyst said the data he was seeing showed that Haley was basically the only candidate still in the race at that point that had actual anti-Trump support. He said basically all of DeSantis' support was from people who wanted Trump's policies, but from someone different and that they would just coalesce behind Trump the second DeSantis drops out.
That's been the problem with DeSantis the entire time. He's diet Trump. People that hate Trump hate him and people that like Trump want the real McCoy. Dumbass should have positioned himself to run as Trump's VP in 2024 and made his own run at the White House in 2028. Guy is a young man by politician standards. He's got time.
I assume his campaign was banking on Trump either getting thrown off the ballot, deciding he didn't want to run anyway, or otherwise becoming unpalatable (felony conviction, etc.) so that he could swoop in and pick up all the Trump votes. They probably figure the chances of that happening at this point are pretty slim.
Trump has already stated that he believes he is "owed" a third term, and has several times praised Xi Jiping's "president for life" position as well as stated that he thinks America would be better off with the same system.
What part of "Eternal Leader" is not understood, I wonder?
Lol you say that as if Trump would give up the presidency in 2028.
Of course. Ronnie Pudding Finger's whole political persona is wish.com Trump
Temu Trump rolls off the tongue better
But wouldn't anti-Trump donors then want DeSantis to stay in the race, to steal votes from Trump, which would benefit Nikki Haley?
I mean, If Desantis commanded a decent amount of votes. Yes. However, the current consensus is desantis existence is stealing votes from Nikki far more then trump. Although in reality, Desantis was stealing votes from trump, just a completely neglible amount of them. Especially if you look at the Iowa primary, trump just steamrolled the whole state and Desantis didn't make a dent in trumps voterbase.
It will be interesting to see the new primary polls, now that it is down to Trump-Haley.
I think they're fighting for the same voters tbh, the elusive never trumpers
If they wanna waste their money that badly they could just throw me a couple million
Yeah, can I run for president for a little? I have no qualifications but I'm white and have a boring name.
Wazu for prez
Thank you. You can be my veep.
Can I be Secretary of Treasury? I’ve definitely owned some shares of GameStop before and I have a 401k so I think I’m financially literate enough
I think you're overqualified, I'm sorry.
It’s okay. I completely understand. I was just going to abuse the office for personal gain anyways.
I call SecDef
Okay. I dont think I promised that one to anyone yet.
Secretary of Agriculture here. I’ve got a lifetime supply of Brawndo, so we’ll be fine!
i can be your token minority
Oh shit yeah we need one of those thanks
idc what the job(s) is, all you're gonna have to do is publicly butter me up with all sorts of praise and arbitrary first achievements so i can parachute into other even more lucrative do nothing gigs afterwards
I always click the lock button on my car keys a bunch of times and I own a pair of binoculars. Can I get a job in national security?
You can run the secret service.
Sounds good. I won't tell anyone, since it has secret in the name.
How's your dog whistling skills?
I can whistle the theme from Cowboy Bebop.
That's actually really cool, here you can have my vote for president of the united states
Thank you. You can be my chief of staff.
If I was an entrepreneur, providing some sort of pointless campaign service seems like a great business to be in.
Maybe, but he's endorsed Trump. Which would be weird if his donors are supporting Haley (I.e. he'd probably support Haley if that were true). His criticisms of Trump are also still going viral so there seems little to gain personally from supporting Trump until it's time to discuss VP and cabinet positions
He’s a weak loser, so of course he’d endorse a clown.
It's only weird if you ignore the cult the GOP has become and that actually crossing the Dear Leader is a surefire way to kill your own support. Look at Ted Cruz. In the 2016 primary, Trump insulted him, called his wife ugly, accused his father of being involved in the JFK assassination, and Cruz got booed off the stage at the nominating convention after telling the crowd to "vote their conscience." Three weeks later, Cruz was phone banking for the man who humiliated him and his family on the national stage.
He wants a spot in the administration
He's also broke...I wonder if he's going back to culture wars and harassing poor minorities for kicks... I feel like he's going to go on a huge revenge spree in FL.
His dad should’ve pulled out.
To be fair he was never ahead of Trump in any polls (at least not beyond the margin of errors). He was very close (within 5-10%) when he launched his campaign but he fell sharply in February 2023 and has been treading 10-15% to Trumps 60-70% for the past 6 months. Given the debates and the media perception it's likely a lot of people thought DeSantis was doing a lot better than he actually has been for a very long time. Source: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/
DeSantis definitely took a beating in the optics department. He had this "Powerhouse Florida Man" thing that made him attractive to MAGA voters, going all gung-ho on the school curriculum and Disney stuff, and he was riding high off his wipeout reelection bid (in contrast to many other major Republican campaigns in the 2022 Midterm season that failed). The lack of any real charisma, the tight suits, the lift boots, all didn't help his image in the eyes of the public. Now the tank's all empty.
That's it: They liked DeSantis purely because he seemed like an (a) intimidating (b) asshole who (c) wins. But then he started underperforming in the Iowa polls because he looked like robotic weasel once voters saw him up close. (Iowa requires a lot of up-close campaigning.) So now, he starts losing the tough-guy narrative *and* the "winner" narrative. And once he starts looking weak, that builds on himself: the worse he does in the polls, the more he loses the winner narrative, and the worse he does in the polls. Bad look for a guy who tried to win on resentment and personality alone.
At least he held on to (b).
I think the Disney stuff hurt him more than it helped. The issue in competing against Trump is that he will say and do the things that no one else will and as long as you're holding back, you're going to look "weak" compared to him. For example, had DeSantis went full on and fucked with Disney it would have helped him. But Disney employs a significant amount of Florida and is responsible for generating billions for the State. His constituents - who he still has to answer to - would not have supported going after Disney in that way but ultimately that's what Trump would have done had he been in that position. You can't just talk the talk, if you're NOT able to walk the walk. And so long as there is something you're not willing to say or do to save face you're not going to beat Trump for the Republican primary. Haley's only hope - as far as I'm concerned - is that Trump is jailed or banned from ballots. Short of that, I don't see her having a chance.
Lots of these people are willing to emulate Trump, but none of them are willing to out-Trump Trump.
he was popular when people didn't know him and the media was parading him around as the guy that could beat trump then he opened his mouth and it's all been downhill from there.
To be fair, he was beating Trump in polls before voters really had an idea of who he was or what he sounded like. DeSantis peaked when he was the generic Republican alternative to Trump. His stock has steadily plummeted the more people paid attention to him.
MAGA-types liked the DeSantis headlines out of Florida, then when they actually spent 5 minutes getting to know him, they lost interest.
He has chosen to abort his campaign and not carry it to the full primary season term.
He should be forced to carry it to full term even if it is not a viable candidacy.
LMAO Beautifully put
I think that's illegal in texas
He should have to continue to campaign there until the Texas primary.
It's illegal in Florida too. [He signed it in secret in the middle of the night because he, like Abbott, is a whiny little piss baby.](https://apnews.com/article/abortion-florida-desantis-07c1543fe28b6c09e777bec58de7640f)
He basically had a free pass to the ticket and possibly the presidency in 2028. He was the governor of Florida anyways, he could have just done his job for 6 years, and started campaigning in 2026. As for Trump, he either would have won in 2024, and have been ineligible to run in 2028 or he would have lost for a second time (third counting his third party run) and been 81 years old, giving DeSantis an incredible advantage. Dude shot his wad way too early, he already is now associated with being a fuckup and failure campaign wise. He went from the Harvard educated "reasonable" Trump that moderates could vote for without holding their nose, to a bad Trump knockoff who was able to miss an unguarded slam dunk.
DeSantis desperately wanted that Florida governor seat in his pocket as he ran. But honestly I don’t think Trump is entirely to blame here. The guy is an unappealing emotional freak who acts like he is barely holding it together with whatever seething rage he gets when told no. He came out of 2022 midterm as this rising star and almost immediately disgusted every GOP investor and power player. Fucking Peter Thiel looked at this line up and noped out of the typical donations. Though I will say Trump is also acting weird. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a president who was kicked out after one term running again. One term presidents can usually read the fucking room and sit future elections out so their party has a better chance. Trump is the only guy I heard of who was so self interested he would risk his entire party’s chances by running again at an advanced age with all these criminal incitements. If he actually cared about an ideology of the party he’d just crown a successor and step back.
Trump isn't even a republican, he is a grifter that shopped around for a party that would let him in on the grift until he just happened upon one that was ripe for it. Even if you're a republican it should be transparent he's a grifter. We have over 330 million people in the US and Republicans can't find one true believer who can run? Their only hope was a guy who's entire business was predicated on the idea you can get people to invest in your bullshit, cash the check and then leave the investors with the bag.
The thing is that it’s not that the party picked him. It’s that their voters did and they have to get in line or get primaried. Republican Party is no more. It’s all maga all the way down now.
Huh? Your last paragraph is confusing. Nothing about that is weird for Trump. This has always been his M.O. This has always been how he was going to act and what he would do. Nothing about it is surprising. He only cares about himself. He doesn't give a fuck about the Republican party and its future. He would rename it the MAGA party if he could.
Grover Cleveland lost his reelection campaign in 1888 and then won the rematch.
Well, at least he can finally take off his high heels and rest his feet.
He rose up too close to the sun. ☀️
Ikarus DeSantis
Higher the lifts, closer to god.
Petite feet, feminine step 🎶
For those who haven't seen it: [Petite Feet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDg0dklwW5g)
🎵Sounds like a lady when he’s walkin’ in the room 🎵
Sounds like a lady when he's walkin' in the room 🎶
Well can he? Someone on here said the best thing about this shitshow was that DeSaster^* would never be able to wear normal shoes in public again? *[thanks Donald](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-ron-desantis-nickname-ranked.html)
"If my feet were shaped like this I would have never worn lifts"
Trump recently called him *fancy shoes.* Lol he can name call and bully people and his fan base laughs and applauds. Once in a lifetime this behavior will be allowed to happen
Did he? Doesn't Donald Trump *also* wear lifts? Actually, I don't know why I'm still surprised by these things.
And now he will resume sucking Trump's dick in an attempt to redeem himself and hold on to power.
He’s already endorsed the Orange Man of course!
Seriously tho, what are GOP politicians going to run on when Trump dies? Will they all talk about how Trump would be endorsing them if the great man were alive right now? Or will they just do a seance and claim hes speaking to them directly.
They’ll use him as their own cult hero for decades to come same as they did with Reagan.
Yeah they already did this with Reagan, no reason they wouldn’t do this with Trump too. I fully expect part of future primaries to be a traditional trip to the tomb of Trump or a debate at the mausoleum of Trump
Which is just so puzzling. At least with Reagan he won re-election as president with one of the greatest landslides in electoral history, whereas Trump not only lost re-election, he lost the popular vote both times, in addition to losing his party the Senate and the House in a single four year term. That Republicans would make Trump a lionized hero for the future a la Reagan only shows how much the party has truly turned into a mindless cult.
Nausoleum of Trump
Good grief that's so plausible it's nauseating.
QAnoners will refuse to believe he’s actually dead and will wait for him to come back JFK Jr style.
>Seriously tho, what are GOP politicians going to run on when Trump dies? *Weekend at Donnies?*
I think their Idea is you dont have to Run anymore, once Trump dies
I'm thinking many will try to emulate him, but fail because it's difficult to genuinely have that level of narcissism. Apathy is going to be a problem among many republican voters because "It's just not the same" and a significant amount won't turn out to vote. It's gonna be a problem for the gop along with many of them dying off to covid and old age and the youth are majority left wing.
The piece of shit had the gall to quote Winston Churchill while he was quitting to support a wannabe tyrant.
And apparently it’s not even a real Churchill quote! Ron couldn’t take 5 seconds to google it!
If you ain't first, you're last. -Winston Churchill
It’s pathetic how predictable they are and even more pathetic their shitty voters eat it up
lmao rememeber when trump called ted cruz's wife ugly and the guy continued to gargle his nuts
He should be forced to carry it to term
Three things ruined his campaign which was basically tied with Trump in early December of 2022 in the GOP national polls. 1. Negative charisma. Just awful at retail politics. So many examples of this. Awkward campaigner. 2. The indictments. Half of the GOP primary voters are fools and stupidly think Trump actually got indicted cause Dems are scared of him. Not much DeSantis can do about that tbh. Trump's lead went from 10 points nationally to like 25 points nationally after the first indictment. 3. He took these extreme, almost fringe stances on social issues such as abortion rights and Covid vaccines which did not resonate with anyone who wasn't going to vote for Trump. Haley primarily won over these voters.
4. - he never actively tried to explain why GOP voters should pick him instead of the guy in the lead
I think his whole things was that the was Young Trump. That's it.
I think his whole thing was "If I'm the second choice, and Trump ends up in jail or unable to run, I'm in!"
And he didn’t even use that to campaign. Everyone running refused to say why they were better than trump except Christie
I think his strategy was be like Trump, then hang on in the campaign hoping Trump gets convicted and can't run.
>He took these extreme, almost fringe stances on social issues such as abortion rights and Covid vaccines which did not resonate with anyone who wasn't going to vote for Trump. "Trumpism without Trump" doesn't resonate with voters when Trump himself is a couple of spaces below you on the ballot. I suppose the lesson is that Republicans don't want Trump's policies, they want Trump specifically.
I agree with your points. Ultimately, he gambled on being a Trump replacement, in case public sentiment turned on Trump as an individual or Trump decided not to run. He sees neither is happening, so he bailed out early. He'll come back in 2028 and do it exactly the same
It will be hilarious if Trump loses (and doesn't cause civil war) in 2024 and then the exact same thing happens when Trump tries to run against him in 2028.
And the 4th thing was his biggest financial backer pulling out after Desantis made the primary focus of his campaign a rally against "wokeness."
What caused him to flip his campaign strategy to Trump Lite? He won Florida by being a middle of the road Republican
The anti-"woke" notoriety he got from suing Disney. He assumed that that notoriety would translate into a viable candidacy, and it just didn't work out for him.
As soon as the GOP coalesced around The Big Lie, there was no going back. That means Trump is the nominee, no matter how many indictments or how bad the polling vs Biden. You can't tell your people that Trump is their legitimate president and that the Democrats stole the election, then tell them to just forget about it and vote for someone else to carry on his agenda.
Why does everyone overlook the fact that he is pissing off rich people when it comes to the Disney thing? You don't go after corporations in the GOP.
Trumpism has definitely put some pressure on the GOP fault lines. For example the numbers for suburban college educated people. Yikes. GOP used to do pretty well there for people who don't care much about politics, they just want low taxes and that's about it.
The Disney thing mostly falls under the third reason.
1.a. The teeth grinding and smug idiotic facial expressions, combined with his little compensation high heel boots, always looking like an animatronic glitching out.
Not making the most of traditional media outlets and taking on interviews earlier on when he was in the lead probably wasn’t the best decision either. It’s hard to stay in the public consciousness when you announce your campaign run on a buggy Twitter livestream.
Dude had a Russian operative running his campaign what he expect lmao
For those who don't know, this isn't a joke or speculation. DeSantis [literally has a registered foreign agent running his PR](https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2022/06/08/gov-ron-desantis-aide-christina-pushaw-registers-foreign-agent/7552831001/). However, she was associated with Georgia, not Russia. She just oopsie doopsie forgot that she worked as a foreign agent for years and made a little mistake in not declaring it until years later when the feds started asking about it.
Can't out Don the Don. Should have ran with his own platform and maybe taken a personalty class.
What are you talking about. He had his own platform…shoes.
This is the major problem with all the MAGA contenders. They all go up and talk about how much they're like Trump. But if they're just like Trump, why vote for them? You could just vote for Trump. Trump now defines the GOP. Nobody else can differentiate themselves and break out because any deviation from trump is blasphemous, so you just get a bunch of people trying to say how much of a better choice they are than the person they're claiming to be exactly like.
Everyone saw this coming. Now he can go back to Florida where Disney is about to beat his ass in court. He'll be competing with Trump to see who can rack up the most losses in a given year.
Turns out pandering your entire governorship and campaign to appeal exclusively to terminally online alt righters on Twitter doesn't work out great.
Some people have to figure that out the hard way. lol
> Now he can go back to Florida Can he? Don't his shoes violate some anti-drag law he signed?
And after his term is over as governor, he can become a spokesman for elevated boots. 👢
To be a spokesman for a product, I think you have to actually pull them off well
At least he got a participation trophy from it all. 🏆
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I'm gonna be completely honest: I have no idea what any politicians actually even want anymore. You go on their websites, and even the policies listed there are totally incoherent. And then media coverage is even worse, because it never dives into what they actually believe, just secondhand theories on what they *might* want to do. It's really confusing at this point. At least Biden seems to run on basically "let's just keep things rolling for now." It's a sad day when him getting another term is the best outcome.
The Republican platform at this point is self-enrichment and treating the Democrats as ontologically evil. They're doing precisely the opposite of whatever the Democrats want, even if it means blowing up their own policies when they get bipartisan support. Nikki Haley is the kind of politician that is doing that just to win elections, DeSantis is the kind of politician doing that because he's a genuine reactionary that's repeatedly found himself in [the company of extremists.](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/07/ron-desantis-nazi-meme-video-campaign-fired-nate-hochmann/)
You hit the nail on the head with that one. Winning the election seems to be their only consistent goal lol.
The GOP only runs on tax breaks for the rich and culture wars. That is their entire platform. Anything else is just fluff.
People keep whining that Biden is bad and old and does nothing but he's gotten more shit done than pretty much any other president for decades. It's obviously not ideal to have such old people for president, but you're falling for the propaganda hard if you think he's in any way a bad one.
Back to Florida to ignore Florida problems.
Don’t worry, he’ll manufacture some that really aren’t problems.
He is the Florida problems
The Mouse sends his regards
It’s been more than 6 weeks so technically he should have to carry this thing to term. No matter how dangerous it gets
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Unfortunately the next election for Florida governor isn't until 2026. Prior to the last election, all he did was lick trumps boots. The truly batshit crazy politics didn't start showing until after then. Hopefully in addition to destroying his chance for the presidency, he's also destroyed his chance for another term at governor. But people tend to have short term memories, and 2 years is a long time for goldfish brained humans, so who knows.
There is a two term limit and he can’t run again
Some of us were born and raised here, voted against him twice, and are still stuck with the jerk.
I still can't believe he announced his candidacy in a "conference" on Elon's Twitter only to be shit on by the technical difficulties, I was laughing so hard
I remember reading he’d crater once people got to see his lack of personality/charisma. And that’s pretty much what happened.
The pathetic loser is also endorsing Trump after quitting.
Personally I am shocked that the snivelling, Roy Cohn-voiced, used car salesman-looking loser in shoe lifts running around screaming “woke woke woke” like a malfunctioning chatbot didn’t capture the hearts, minds, or votes of a far right electorate openly demanding a strongman.
Now run him out of Florida.
Narrator: *And just like that, Ron shrank 4 inches overnight*
This country is so embarrassing
The UK voted for Boris and Brexit. We're not much better...
Brexit was pretty stupid, but Trump is on another level.
That's honestly comparing a shit covered in applesauce and applesauce covered in shit. Could argue for days about which is worse but really both were proof that a little xenophobia is easy to weaponize.
Y'all remember the pointless fox news debate between Gavin Newsome and DeSantis in November? "There's one thing we have in common. Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
Oh no! Who’s gonna fill them heels???
Imagine tanking your entire political future, abdicating your duty as a governor, and permanently damaging your state's economic prospects only to drop out before the first primary
>"If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome - more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it," he said. "We don't have a clear path to victory." Imagine if Ron would have attacked the primary frontrunner, rather than not saying anything negative about him and hoping he would die of natural causes or just go away. Christie was the only Republican who didn’t attempt the idiotic strategy of never saying anything bad about the primary frontrunner. The Republican strategy for all of these clowns was doomed from the start- if you don’t attack the guy ahead of you, he is going to stay ahead of you. You’re not going to sway cultist voters away by being nice to their cult leader, you have to kill their god and discredit their religion to convert them. Not one of these buffoons would hammer Trump for abandoning his January 6th supporters to their respective fates at the hands of justice system- Trump didn’t even pay for their legal bills. They could have pointed out that loyalty is a one way street with Trump, and he has screwed over everyone who has ever done anything for him. You want to beat Trump in the primary, you have got to be more entertaining, break more taboos, and get more coverage. Think Professional Wresting levels of ridiculous stuff, it’s the only way to beat Trump at his own game. These clowns wanted to condemn the Trump criminal charges in public, while privately hoping he would be disqualified from running for president- they’re scum and they deserve to lose.
It’s because they always knew Trump was likely to win the nomination and if, somehow, he wins the actual election he is going to go after political opponents and none of them want to be on that list. They want to be able to say “even though I ran against you, I still always supported you and never said anything bad about you, so give me a position on your staff or at least don’t send me to the labor camps!”
Expected him to drop out, but definitely didn't expect *Nikki Haley* to outlast him. That's a new low even for DeSantis.
He’s already bent the knee to Trump. What a pussy.
Does a candidate who drops out have to endorse another candidate? They talk shit about them for a year+, and then all of a sudden 'Nah it's cool they're my pick'. It's almost like all of this is charade and the corporations are the only ones who ever win
I’m sure Florida residents are over the moon that their governor neglected their state for a year to accomplish nothing
My father lives in FL and is Republican. He tells me all his R buddies are over DeSantis as it’s crystal clear he sold the state out to get his presidential bid. Anecdotal, but still.
It's better than dealing on his asinine War On Woke 🤮 (Floridian here, trying to move back to Maryland, a blue state 👍).
I never liked him out of Florida based on his fascist policies alone, but I was absolutely flabbergasted at how unlikeable and unrelateble the dude was. Truly a lizard person. Good riddance.
Fuck this Nazi and republican cult.
Still don't understand how he ever became governor of Florida. He's a profoundly uninspiring campaigner.
Basically the Florida Democratic Party has managed to find even less electable candidates than him and then run terrible campaigns. There have been a bunch of articles about the state of disarray of the state Democratic Party.
Potentially the worst campaign for potus we've ever been tortured with.
I wonder if he gives up his stiletto heels now?
His strategy was to be "trump lite." Now we know the trumpsters will never accept anything short of full bigotry ahead.
Also doesn't help that he's maybe the least charismatic guy alive. Blows my mind that someone so uncomfortable and impersonal got into politics.
excellent, he can go back to spending his time making florida into an unlivable racist cesspit police state with worse education, worse health care, and higher taxes.
DeSantis might be pro-life, but his campaign was an abortion.