Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made his first official trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate on Tuesday and made it clear that despite being 42 points down to former president Donald Trump in the state, he wasn’t going to pull any punches trying not to offend Trump supporters.
In fact, after months of Trump taking unanswered potshots at DeSantis, the Florida governor let loose on his former ally with a barrage of criticism.
“I’m going to respond to attacks,” the governor said. “I’m going to counterpunch; I’m going to fight back.”
As an example, Trump hasn’t said much about the debt ceiling debate since Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden signed off on a deal. “Are you leading from the front, or are you waiting for polls to tell you what position to take? I led from the front on this. I didn’t need to put my finger in the wind — that’s not how I roll,” said DeSantis at a press conference.
How does he plan to distinguish himself from the former president? “There’s no substitute for victory.”
There was more. DeSantis jabbed at Trump for presiding over a spike in federal spending, which he said he opposed during his three terms in Congress. And he described Trump as soft on illegal immigration—the former president’s signature issue.
Trump is leading the race for the Republican nomination with 53.2 percent to DeSantis’ 22.4 percent in the latest RealClearPolitics average. The former president built that lead by hammering DeSantis for months with mostly unanswered attacks while taking little incoming fire himself from other declared GOP contenders, from former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. But DeSantis is running a different campaign.
“I like that he’s against the woke culture,” Rod Wisecup, a 66-year-old retiree, told The Dispatch, explaining why DeSantis is a strong contender for his support in the caucuses. “I think it’s gone way overboard and it’s going to ruin our country if we don’t get it under control.”
DeSantis’s criticism of Trump included the charge that the former president had moved to the left since leaving office.
DeSantis bashed Trump on issues such as immigration, COVID policy and federal spending, suggesting that he had drifted away from conservative principles as president.
“Unfortunately, he’s decided to move left on some of these issues,” DeSantis said.
Trump, the front-runner in the Republican race, recently assailed DeSantis’ handling of the COVID pandemic, when DeSantis resisted federal mask and vaccine mandates.
DeSantis called Trump’s criticisms “detached from reality” and argued Republicans would respond by supporting him.
“I think he’s doing it in a way that the voters are going to side with me,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis wasn’t going to get anywhere soft-pedaling his opposition to Trump as many Republican candidates appeared to do in 2016. Fearing Trump’s acid tongue and unerring aim in going for the jugular, Trump’s opponents refused to go toe-to-toe with candidate Trump.
It may not matter what DeSantis does in 2024. With nearly 70% of Republican voters saying they support the former president, Trump starts out with a huge lead that will be hard for DeSantis to overcome.
“The former president’s base continues to be voters under 35: 75% of whom support Trump, and voters without a college degree: 70% support Trump. DeSantis’s support is higher among voters with a postgraduate degree, with 29% support, still trailing Trump’s 37% with this group,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.
There’s still a long way to go, however, and Trump has immense legal obstacles he must overcome. Who knows what the near future holds for both candidates as the race begins in earnest?
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