“He doesn’t do the warm and fuzzies well. “He’s missing the sociability gene,” a prominent Republican said, relaying an oft-stated critique. People describe DeSantis’s personality as a mix of extreme arrogance and painful awkwardness. “People host events where donors give him enormous sums of money, and he never says thank you.” While reporting this profile, more than a dozen GOP donors, elected officials, and former DeSantis staffers predicted that DeSantis’s combative temperament would be a serious liability if exposed to the white-hot glare of a presidential campaign. “The biggest complaint you hear about DeSantis is that he never says thank you,” a veteran GOP strategist said. It’s not just Trump that DeSantis has alienated. “Trump tells people, ‘I made Ron,’ ” a prominent Republican said. Sources said it galls Trump that DeSantis hasn’t acknowledged the boost Trump provided, aside from a cursory acknowledgement in his victory speech. In conversations, Trump reminds people that then congressman DeSantis was losing by double digits during the 2018 gubernatorial primary until Trump backed him. Trump’s animus is fueled by his (not incorrect) belief that he put DeSantis in the governor’s mansion. “Trump says he’s overrated, disloyal, and a know-nothing,” a Trump friend told me. Trump, meanwhile, vents about DeSantis constantly, according to people who speak with him. He says he would turn to Trump during a debate and say, ‘Why didn’t you fire Fauci? You said you would build the wall, but there is no wall. “DeSantis says the only way to beat Trump is to attack him head-on.
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DeSantis tells donors that, if he takes on Trump, he would launch a full frontal attack on his record and competence, according to a GOP source briefed on the conversations.
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“He calls him a TV personality and a moron who has no business running for president,” a former DeSantis staffer said. So far, the DeSantis-Trump smackdown has been unfolding off camera. A University of North Florida poll conducted from August 8 through August 12 showed DeSantis beating Trump in a 2024 primary 47 percent to 45 percent. In July, a New York Times/Siena College poll found more than half of GOP voters would vote for someone other than Trump in 2024. Which means the DeSantis-Trump rivalry will remain the most closely watched story line in Republican politics heading into the 2024 GOP primary. Discussions in Trumpworld about a campaign announcement were active as this article went to press. “He’d rather blame Mitch McConnell for a loss than himself,” a Republican briefed on Trump’s thinking told me. According to a source, Trump told advisers he worried he could be damaged politically if Republicans underperform in the midterms. According to two sources briefed on Trump’s plans, the former president considered announcing he was running over the July Fourth holiday but decided to wait. Of course, any path to the 2024 GOP nomination almost certainly runs through Trump. The organizers of DeSantis’s Pennsylvania speech required reporters to submit clips of previous articles ostensibly to vet them, though this took on a more authoritarian tone given the two candidates’ open wars with the mainstream press.
It’s a big deal to him,” a former DeSantis adviser told me. “Ron has done a fantastic job courting Fox talent.
According to the liberal watchdog group Media Matters, DeSantis made more than 200 appearances since 2017 on the network. DeSantis has burnished his national profile by granting frequent interviews to Fox News. His Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, has raised just $15.3 million. According to disclosures, DeSantis has raised a record-breaking $172 million since August 2019. This summer, DeSantis campaigned for candidates in two more key swing states-Arizona and Ohio-and has amassed a sizable war chest. In February, Rupert Murdoch–owned HarperCollins signed DeSantis to a lucrative book deal, which the governor could use to publish his national platform next year. The omission was one of the many signs that the 44-year-old is preparing a run for president in 2024. DeSantis’s appearance in the Keystone State made headlines not for what he said but for what he didn’t: anything nice about Donald Trump.
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