Desantis vs. Trump

[Reformed]

In the 2016 GOP primaries, Trump's rival for the nomination was Ted Cruz. Trump, through his SuperPacs, disseminated some nasty lies about Cruz; even suggesting Cruz's father was a stooge of Fidel Castro. Of course, none of the other candidates were spared from Trump's insults. Marco Rubio was "little Marco", Carly Fiorina had her looks criticized, and Jeb Bush was described as "low energy". Now it looks as though Ron Desantis is about to announce his candidacy. Trump's latest attack on Desantis is that he is an average governor.

Desantis will have a tough road ahead of him if he declares his candidacy. Trump's attack on Desantis and his family will be vicious. Trump doesn't know any other way. Character assassination is not just what he does, it is who he is. But I am stating the obvious. My real question is how will Desantis respond to what he knows is coming. I am sure Desantis and his closest aides have a strategy for dealing with Trump's smears. Does Desantis attack in return? Does he take the high ground and make Joe Biden his focus? How about a little of both?

If you were in Desantis' inner circle, what would you advise?

 

[Wingman68]

No character assassinations happened to Trump, right? He’s just a bully………..or is he a fighter who doesn’t know the word quit? Desantis will rue the day if he announces. He had a very bright future but looks like he’s being talked into jumping the line. Who would sacrifice him like that? Think Rino’s & GOPe. Do they care about Desantis, or the people, or are they just grabbing any shot to stop Trump?! Can’t control that guy, you know…….Ever heard of the ‘Trump curse’? Trump calls it the ‘Trump Quicksand’.

 

[Salty]

I like this answer Desantis gave when asked about the possibility of Trump being arrested: “I have no interest in getting involved in some manufactured circus by some Soros-DA,” DeSantis said at a news conference Monday, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in the state of Florida.”

From this link:

 

[AustinC]

In the 2016 GOP primaries, Trump's rival for the nomination was Ted Cruz. Trump, through his SuperPacs, disseminated some nasty lies about Cruz; even suggesting Cruz's father was a stooge of Fidel Castro. Of course, none of the other candidates were spared from Trump's insults. Marco Rubio was "little Marco", Carly Fiorina had her looks criticized, and Jeb Bush was described as "low energy". Now it looks as though Ron Desantis is about to announce his candidacy. Trump's latest attack on Desantis is that he is an average governor.

Desantis will have a tough road ahead of him if he declares his candidacy. Trump's attack on Desantis and his family will be vicious. Trump doesn't know any other way. Character assassination is not just what he does, it is who he is. But I am stating the obvious. My real question is how will Desantis respond to what he knows is coming. I am sure Desantis and his closest aides have a strategy for dealing with Trump's smears. Does Desantis attack in return? Does he take the high ground and make Joe Biden his focus? How about a little of both?

If you were in Desantis' inner circle, what would you advise?

Let Trump shoot himself in the foot. If the Republican Party is that stupid to nominate Trump, then the Republican Party deserves to lose badly in every election. Trump is a huge blight on the Party.

 

[DaveXR650]

If you were in Desantis' inner circle, what would you advise?

There is no good advice. If Desantis beats Trump in the primaries there is a Trump following that will not support Desantis. If the battle gets heated and Trump looses the primary battle he is vindictive enough to get his name on the ballot as a 3rd party and sink any conservative Republican candidate. If Trump is the nominee, like Austin says, he will lose the general election.

 

[canadyjd]

There is no good advice. If Desantis beats Trump in the primaries there is a Trump following that will not support Desantis. If the battle gets heated and Trump looses the primary battle he is vindictive enough to get his name on the ballot as a 3rd party and sink any conservative Republican candidate. If Trump is the nominee, like Austin says, he will lose the general election.

I do not believe Trump would run as third party candidate if he loses the primary. DeSantis has handled himself pretty well so far, but I predict he won’t run if his poll numbers (for POTUS) don’t get above 40% consistently.

I do agree there is a large % of Trump supporters that will not vote for anyone other than Trump, as it stands right now. I guess 5-10%, but don’t have any polls to support it is just a guess.

The big issue will be the economy. If the US falls into a recession or depression, Biden, or whoever the Dems nominate, is done.

The folks saying a Trump nomination is sure to fail said the same thing in 2015. They mocked him. They lied about him so much his supporters didn’t believe anything the media said.

peace to you

 

[Reformed]

I like this answer Desantis gave when asked about the possibility of Trump being arrested: “I have no interest in getting involved in some manufactured circus by some Soros-DA,” DeSantis said at a news conference Monday, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in the state of Florida.”

From this link:

Desantis has said all the right things. He has deflected when asked about Trump's smears towards him. That is smart. I watched his interview with Piers Morgan last evening on Fox Nation. He stayed classy. He refuses to announce his candidacy until after the Florida legislative session is over. However, if he decides to run he will need a strategy to combat Trump.

 

[Reformed]

Let Trump shoot himself in the foot. If the Republican Party is that stupid to nominate Trump, then the Republican Party deserves to lose badly in every election. Trump is a huge blight on the Party.

Many people agree with you.

 

[Reformed]

There is no good advice. If Desantis beats Trump in the primaries there is a Trump following that will not support Desantis. If the battle gets heated and Trump looses the primary battle he is vindictive enough to get his name on the ballot as a 3rd party and sink any conservative Republican candidate. If Trump is the nominee, like Austin says, he will lose the general election.

There is a contingent of GOP voters who will rather see the house burn down than vote for anyone other than Trump. The circumstances that the potential nominee faces are now different than in 2016. Trump was the right candidate for the time back in 2016. No one saw him coming. He resonated with the widespread anger of the electorate. Today he is no longer then surprise candidate. He is a known quantity. Many of his allies have abandoned him. He will maintain his "Trump forever" supporters, but the independents have flown the coup, and they are unlikely to return. IMHO, 2016 needed a disrupter. That was Trump. 2024 needs a unifier.

 

[percho]

As I see it,

You have Dem's and Rino's in reality one and the same

Then you have Trump

And relative to the will of God not sure how I feel about Trump.

However, if the Lord tarries methinks Trump is the only answer!

 

[777]

Advice for DeSantis? Path of least resistance is to wait for 2028, like him but it'd be hard enough to get by Trump and II think you're wrong, many of his supporters do NOT blindly follow Trump and DeSantis does have several advantages over Trump - more low-key, younger, resume, etc.

But you're right, it's not 2016 anymore and Tramp now has a record to run on, and it looks good in comparison to what's there now. Many are comparing this one to 1980 but I think that' is a bit of a stretch, even considering the state of the economy and all the foreign policy disasters. The DNC has its hooks in election fraud in virtually every swing state, they will pull out all the stops.

But back to the OP - Ron's only hope is if Trump implodes somehow, at his age and health, it could happen. Else, it ;looks like it will be a contest between Trump and Biden, and Ron will have to resign as governor to run. I'd tell him to wait but if he insisted, I would advise him to study up on the Scott Walker run in 2016 to figure out how it all went wrong - many parallels to DeSantis to see,

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

There is a contingent of GOP voters who will rather see the house burn down than vote for anyone other than Trump. The circumstances that the potential nominee faces are now different than in 2016. Trump was the right candidate for the time back in 2016. No one saw him coming. He resonated with the widespread anger of the electorate. Today he is no longer then surprise candidate. He is a known quantity. Many of his allies have abandoned him. He will maintain his "Trump forever" supporters, but the independents have flown the coup, and they are unlikely to return. IMHO, 2016 needed a disrupter. That was Trump. 2024 needs a unifier.

Trump was the right man in 2016 and again in 2020. More than anyone before, and to the surprise of most, he exposed the deep corruption of the government and the media orchestrated by Dems and RINOs. They will hate and hound anyone capable of similar effect. What reasonable unity could there be?

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

In the 2016 GOP primaries, Trump's rival for the nomination was Ted Cruz. Trump, through his SuperPacs, disseminated some nasty lies about Cruz; even suggesting Cruz's father was a stooge of Fidel Castro. Of course, none of the other candidates were spared from Trump's insults. Marco Rubio was "little Marco", Carly Fiorina had her looks criticized, and Jeb Bush was described as "low energy". Now it looks as though Ron Desantis is about to announce his candidacy. Trump's latest attack on Desantis is that he is an average governor.

Desantis will have a tough road ahead of him if he declares his candidacy. Trump's attack on Desantis and his family will be vicious. Trump doesn't know any other way. Character assassination is not just what he does, it is who he is. But I am stating the obvious. My real question is how will Desantis respond to what he knows is coming. I am sure Desantis and his closest aides have a strategy for dealing with Trump's smears. Does Desantis attack in return? Does he take the high ground and make Joe Biden his focus? How about a little of both?

If you were in Desantis' inner circle, what would you advise?

Simple… take the high ground and attempt to ignore the arse-clown. Don’t get drawn in.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I like this answer Desantis gave when asked about the possibility of Trump being arrested: “I have no interest in getting involved in some manufactured circus by some Soros-DA,” DeSantis said at a news conference Monday, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in the state of Florida.”

From this link:

If Fl is the primary concern, then why announce? Sounds like Cris (I’m a big fat lying RINO) Christy who announced to the ppl of NJ he had no interest in being POTUS then announced his candidacy. How two faced!

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Many people agree with you.

Atlantic City agrees with you.