Even before Joe Biden took the oath of office, I was ready for Donald Trump’s comeback. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that all the progress made during Trump’s first term would be destroyed with Joe Biden and his Obama administration retreads running the executive branch. Frankly, things went worse than even I expected. It’s hard to imagine someone doing so much damage to the country so quickly, but, alas, that’s what Joe Biden did.
As Biden did unspeakable damage to the country, I wanted nothing more than for Trump to get his revenge in 2024. Frankly, the way the Biden administration has abused its power and weaponized the Justice Department against him has made me even angrier, and it’s made me want to win in 2024 more than ever before — which is hard to believe was possible.
But things changed, and Trump’s divisive nature, even within the GOP, has gotten old. At the same time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has proven to be an effective conservative leader, turning Florida into a solid red state and fighting and winning important battles. When I saw him speak at CPAC 2022, I knew he was the future of the Republican Party. He went on to win reelection as Florida governor in a landslide back in November, after barely winning four years earlier. That speaks volumes.
Even though I would enthusiastically support either Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump in 2024, I’m leaning heavily toward DeSantis right now — and for that, I get a lot of flak from readers for being “disloyal” to Trump. It’s not because I don’t recognize what Trump did for this country; it’s that I have concerns about him.
During a recent visit to Iowa, DeSantis was asked by a voter why he should vote for him over Trump, and I thought his answer was spot on. “Well, I think a few things. One is, I think I’m much more likely to actually get elected, which is very important,” DeSantis began. “I could serve two terms. He’d be a lame duck on Day 1 even if he could get elected. I have a track record of appointing really good people to office. I think he appointed a lot of duds to office, and it really hurt his ability to get his agenda done.”
Even the most “loyal” of Trump’s die-hard supporters can’t deny that Trump made some bad appointments during his first term. Even Trump knows this. Despite his insistence that he’d only hire “the best people” to serve in his administration, it’s hard to come up with a single person who didn’t either stab him in the back or whom Trump himself has attacked at some point. Heck, he attacks his own vice president now over a dispute about Pence’s failure to use a power he never had. And Trump has attacked his former press secretary for daring to defend DeSantis. One big problem Trump would have in a second term is finding people who are willing to risk serving in his administration.
Flashback: If Trump Runs and Wins in 2024, Who Would Serve in His Administration?
DeSantis wasn’t done answering, either. “I also think I’m more likely to follow through on doing what I said I would do. You look in Florida, everything I promised, I did. I never made a promise that I didn’t follow through on, and that’s just how I am. I am not going to sit there and tell you something that you want to hear to try to get your vote, and then get in and just forget that it ever happened.”
It’s hard to argue with DeSantis’s points there. We can be grateful for Trump and what he did as president but still acknowledge that the time has come for him to pass the torch.
