Category: Election 2024

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, backing down after almost a year-long misadventure that began before President Trump’s announcement speech at Mar-A-Lago in November 2022.

DeSantis issued an X (formerly Twitter) statement on Sunday, endorsing Donald Trump and stating that he was proud of his campaign.

NEVER BACK DOWN.

DeSantis’s presidential aspirations were known to staff and those close to him for years before his glitched Twitter/X announcement speech with Elon Musk on May 24th, 2023. Indeed, what seemed to the uninformed like an unprovoked attack from Trump in November 2022 was in reality the culmination of both DeSantis staff and donors indicating to the press that as soon as the Florida Governor could persuade his state’s legislature to change the law so he could run while remaining Governor, he would enter the race. In one interview with Fox News, DeSantis and his wife Jill ‘Casey’ admitted to deciding to primary Trump as far back as November 2020.

Meanwhile, Ron embarked on a ludicrous “book tour” for a publication that scarcely sold any copies. He claimed to be advertising “the Florida model,” even tripping overseas, where he was labeled boring and uncharismatic. During that time, he left Jeanette Nunez – a woman who once described Donald Trump as the “KKK” – in charge of the Sunshine State.

In the early days, Trump’s barbs against DeSantis were condemned by most “conservative” talking heads, as well as many who professed to still be in the Trump camp, though later it would emerge they were playing both sides. The likes of Steve Cortes, John Cardillo, Matthew Tyrmand, Pedro Gonzales, Clay Travis, Tomi Lahren, and others would secretly back DeSantis. At the same time, the Florida Governor hired the axis of incompetence: Jeff Roe, Adam Laxalt, and Christina Pushaw to attack MAGA Republicans and the former President.

DeSantis’s disingenuous strategy was spotted early by this outlet, The National Pulse, which endorsed Trump as far back as November 2022 and shone a spotlight on those who were being dishonest about their choices early on. The duplicity would extend to how DeSantis ran his entire campaign, allowing his Super PAC, ‘Never Back Down,’ to effectively run most of the logistics, a move that was both legally sketchy and politically retarded.

‘JUST WAIT UNTIL…’

Following his botched launch, DeSantis’s online operation – which the candidate himself held at arm’s length – would undertake a campaign to try to “out-meme” MAGA Republicans on the internet, running head first into the buzzsaw of the “Dilley Meme Team” and others, who ritualistically humiliated DeSantis and his surrogates online. The embarrassment bled into the campaign’s day-to-day operations, which led Team Ron to hurriedly deploy an army of bot accounts to stem the bleeding. It didn’t work.

Instead, pro-DeSantis operatives attempted to kick the can down the road. “Just wait until he announces,” it began. Then, “just wait until he debates,” and finally, “just wait until Iowa.” Then Iowa came, and DeSantis was once again humbled by President Trump and his team, who maintained a remarkable discipline through 2023 in the face of many political indictments.

WHAT WENT WRONG.

There are far more nuances to DeSantis’s failure than a simple political campaign obituary can explore. But a few include:

• The folly of picking Jeff Roe and Axiom;
• The long-standing feud between Trump’s campaign chief Susie Wiles and DeSantis;
• The outsourcing of strategy to his wife, Jill ‘Casey’ DeSantis;
• His establishment donors;
• His COVID revisionism;
• His profligate spending;
• The weirdos he put around him;
• His staff’s bizarre ideological positions;
• The unexplained links with this Iranian donor;
• His ads that literally used Nazi imagery;
• The stripper donor;
• His reliance on high-dollar donors;
• The weirdos he put around him;
• The connections with the 2016 ‘Never Trumpers’;
• His insults towards MAGA Republicans;
• The weirdos he put around him;
• Christina Pushaw;
• The attacks on pro-life Republicans;
• The weirdos he put around him;
• His third-rate consultants;
• The weirdos he put around him;
• His COVID obsession;
• The “pay for play” scandals;
• The weird Israel stuff;
• Bootgate;
• Kim Reynolds (and more pay-for-play);
• Corruption;
• Giving an award to a trans “woman”;
• His staffers threatening conservative reporters;
• Bob Vander Plaats;
• The weirdos he put around him;
• Holding up a poop map during a debate and thinking that was a dunk;
• More corruption;
• His “woke” obsession;
• His attacks on conservative media;
• His attacks on J6ers, and;
• His staff attacked a mourning Trump family.

Mind you, we did tell you it would be a car crash. Or rather, an “historic clusterfuck.”