Ron DeSantis Must Announce Now or Not Run – Former President Donald J. Trump is again sucking up all the oxygen in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primary.
A man who has made garnering free mass media attention a way of life, Trump is now relishing in his simultaneous role both as tribune of the “forgotten man” and as the victim-in-chief of a massive Democrat-led conspiracy aimed not only at his return to power but his much-maligned voters as well. Because of these stances, Trump remains a candidate who can command a sizable chunk of the Republican base and still lose the general election.
That is why it is essential that Republican voters be given an actual choice in the primary between the two strongest GOP candidates: Trump and Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.
Yet, the recent news that Trump is the first former president in American history to be indicted (for a nothingburger crime, by the way), has given the Trump Campaign a renewed lease on life. Trump can now claim that the faceless men are after him again (in some cases, this is true). He is a true threat to the corrupt DC system in a way that other candidates are not.
America is a Failed State Today
Recently, Trump gave an interview with Fox News’ Hannity in which he argued that the United States was a “failing” country under President Joe Biden’s reign. Trump’s assessment is correct. Sadly, Trump performs poorly among independent voters and certain minorities.
This has been proven true in every election that Trump has either been on the ballot or closely associated with the Republicans running (2018, 2020, and 2022). Trump is a known commodity. Those who love him are diehards. Those who dislike will vote for a braindead alternative rather than place the orange fireball in the White House.
The recent indictment has added fuel to Trump’s political inferno. He is engaged in perception shaping operations with the Republican base. Although there are other candidates running for the GOP nomination, let’s face it, the two titans dueling for control over the GOP are former President Trump and Governor DeSantis.
Judging from the meandering and plodding nature of DeSantis’ campaign strategy (he has yet to officially announce his bid), one would not know that DeSantis is, in fact, mounting a challenge to Trump from the Right.
At this rate, given how Trump has dominated the media environment in the GOP, DeSantis is running out of time—bigly—to fundamentally change the direction of the GOP race in his favor.
And by running out of time, I don’t mean DeSantis has a few months or even weeks to do something bold. I mean he’s got a week to pull some of the media attention away from Trump and his perpetual grievance machine.
Ron DeSantis Needs to Move Beyond the Basement Strategy
Initially, DeSantis’ strategy toward Trump was sound. Trump is a brawler who thrives on controversy and chaos. As a skilled counterpuncher, Trump proved that he alone could decimate his more seasoned political rivals in 2016 with his divide-and-conquer, freewheeling, and visceral campaign style.
I wrote years ago that Trump was America’s id. Ignoring one’s id, as Ron DeSantis has striven to do since Trump announced his candidacy for another go at the presidency in November 2022, was only a stopgap; a temporary tactic meant to give DeSantis time to organize for action.
That window has closed. DeSantis needs to go into full Navy SEAL mode and start dominating the battlespace.
In the preceding weeks, Ron DeSantis has witnessed his national poll numbers begin collapsing as Trump has consumed more media attention and played up the Republican Party’s sense of grievance and persecution.
Trump speaks in an everyman vernacular as well and DeSantis needs to do the same. No more wonky discourses on legality.
Never Go Full Wonk
In the last two weeks alone, there have been multiple times where Governor DeSantis could have distinguished himself by making statements about whatever controversy was roiling the news at that time.
Sadly, DeSantis, an articulate, capable, visionary, and tough leader botched the delivery.
Trump rage tweets (or, Truths) better than most angry teenagers do. He understands how to land a rhetorical punch that sets his rivals back, galvanizes his supporters, and riles the media enough to lend him free airtime (Trump knows that any press is good press). While Trump was bleating his outrage about the totally unjust witch hunt that he’s being subjected to by the Democratic Party DA in Manhattan, DeSantis delivered what amounted to a lecture on the dangers of abusing the legal system.
He needlessly complicated what should have been a simple tweet. Republican voters want the fiery emotions of their id, not the balanced rationality of their intellect, as represented by DeSantis.
Please don’t overthink this, Governor.
Rather than issue his statement, with its fair-minded talk, what DeSantis should’ve tweeted out was this: “I won’t allow for the unlawful extradition of Donald Trump. Alvin Bragg is a Leftist hack abusing his power. Bragg can come down here and get Trump himself if he wants him so badly!” Or some variation thereof. Make clear that, while they may be competing for the same job, DeSantis will stand with the base. Always.
That much simpler, 183-character statement would have reflected the governor’s true feelings far better than his discourse of legal impartiality and would have secured him sympathy from a Republican base that he is about to totally lose if he doesn’t fundamentally change his strategy.
Whoever is running DeSantis’ nascent, unofficial campaign is correct to think that such rational behavior on the governor’s part will be effective in winning over squeamish moderates during a general election. They are, however, incorrect in assuming that this milquetoast behavior will get them through the emotional, unstable, and verbally violent GOP 2024 Primary.
DeSantis Needs to Make Corrections Now
Thankfully for DeSantis, while Trump is owning the media environment, the forty-fifth president has yet to be truly challenged for control over the media environment (because DeSantis has yet to announce). DeSantis must declare around or shortly after Easter that he is, in fact, running to be the forty-seventh president of the United States.
DeSantis is a competitor who can run with the best of them. He just needs to get out of his own way. If he’s serious about running for president, 2024—not 2028—is his moment. But he cannot keep ceding the lush media ground to Trump who will fertilize that rich soil with his style of grievance and vengeance.
Announcing in the next week will fundamentally alter the landscape in his favor. It will force Trump to start responding in ways that he might not yet be willing to do. That gives DeSantis a clear advantage.
DeSantis can then also make the case that this is America’s final hour. The stakes have never been this high. The Democrats have proven they are unable to lead this country to anywhere other than its decline and possible collapse. If we are to avoid this terrible fate, then the Republicans need to choose the candidate with the widest appeal. That is not Donald Trump.
MORE: Is AOC a Sellout?
MORE: Hunter Biden Has a Big China Problem
MORE: Kamala Harris ‘Seems to Be An Albatross’
MORE: Pete Buttigieg: Running for President?
MORE: What Trump Getting Arrested Could Look Like
Republican voters, like DeSantis, are righteously indignant at the excesses that politically motivated actors have engaged in to destroy their political rival, Donald Trump. The fact remains, though, that Trump is still too divisive to win a general election.
Only Ron DeSantis can believably inquire of the GOP base whether they seek to follow Trump into a grievance-fueled oblivion or win the future. Because you can only do one or the other—and your choice in candidate will impact that outcome.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
