Currently, the most closely monitored dynamic in US politics is the interplay between former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
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The two men are, without question, the most prominent figures of the contemporary GOP. And both Donald Trump and DeSantis have designs on the White House.
Obviously, only one candidate can win the GOP nomination. The competition will likely define the 2024 GOP primary.
Donald Trump v. DeSantis
Trump has dominated GOP politics for nearly eight years – ever since he rode down his golden escalator and declared his candidacy for the 2016 election (which, somehow, he won).
But Trump’s stock is falling, lower than ever before.
Trump lost the 2020 election (by seven million votes), while his endorsees fared poorly in subsequent midterm elections.
Trump is compounding his electability woes with a plethora of lawsuits, investigations, and scandals.
Everything from the January 6th riots, to the document’s investigation, to the Kanye West dinner, to the IRS tax audit is dragging Trump down.
Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis is surging.
Last November, DeSantis destroyed Charlie Crist in the Florida gubernatorial election – concretely demonstrating just how viable DeSantis is. DeSantis has risen to prominence with a series of brash political stunts/maneuvers.
Through flouting COVID conventions, “wokeism,” Disney, and left-wing-open-borders-immigration-policy, DeSantis has endeared himself to right-wing constituents. In fact, DeSantis is leading Trump in recent polls. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll found that 56 percent of voters favor DeSantis, whereas only 33 percent of voters favor Trump – a shocking 23-point discrepancy.
Accordingly, DeSantis is no longer merely just the primary challenger to the GOP mantle; DeSantis has emerged as the race’s frontrunner.
Could Donald Trump and DeSantis team up?
In 2008, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ran a bitterly contested DNC primary against each other. Obama, a freshman Senator, upset Clinton, who was already a well-established political institution and the expected winner. In victory, Obama was gracious; rather than marginalize his former opponent, Obama reached out, courting Clinton to join the nascent Obama administration. Clinton was hesitant at first but ultimately accepted the position as Secretary of State, which of course helped her posture to re-run for the White House in 2016.
If either Trump or DeSantis wins the GOP primary, could the winner reach out similarly to court the loser and consolidate power and talent within one administration? It seems less likely here.
If DeSantis wins, Donald Trump simply isn’t going to join the DeSantis administration. Trump is a former president and any Executive Branch position other than President of the United States isn’t going to work. Trump is not going to join a DeSantis ticket as vice president, nor is Trump going to join a DeSantis cabinet. Assuming DeSantis even wants such a thing, it’s just not going to happen.
The more likely scenario is that Trump wins and reaches out to DeSantis. Yet, for Trump to reach out after the primary was settled would require the notoriously thin-skinned Trump to get through a bitterly contested primary without getting his feelings hurt, without taking DeSantis’s criticisms and political attacks personally.
Can Trump do that? I don’t think so. Perhaps if DeSantis ran a squeaky-clean race, without ad hominem attacks, or even without general criticisms of the Trump administration, DeSantis would be welcomed into the fold.
But DeSantis is cut from Trump’s cloth. If DeSantis runs, he’s going to run hard. No, Trump is probably going to hate DeSantis by the time the GOP primary is settled, making it less likely a defeated DeSantis is invited to join a hypothetical Trump administration.
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Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison lives in Oregon and listens to Dokken.
