According to Paul Mulshine of the Star-Ledger, Donald Trump is giving an inadvertent helping hand to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ low-key campaign to be the 2024 Republican Party’s presidential nominee.
As the columnist noted, while DeSantis has kept himself in the news by making high-profile and controversial policy changes in his state, Trump made a big deal in the past week– about his golf game.
“Donald Trump sent out a release last week announcing he scored a hole-in-one on one of his golf courses in West Palm Beach. Good for him. Retired presidents are expected to play golf,” the columnist wrote before warning, “But they’re also expected to stay retired. Here Trump is making a key mistake, assuming he wants to run again in 2024. He’s constantly drawing attention to Florida, where his Mar-a-Lago complex is located (on a surprisingly dumpy beach.). “
According to the journalist, keeping the attention on Florida is a plus for DeSantis’ national hopes.
Writing, “Ron DeSantis is taking advantage of it to demonstrate that he, not The Donald, is the most skilled politician in the Sunshine State,” he added that Trump’s controversial comments about Ukraine while praising Vladimir Putin are examples that the former president is losing the ability to read the room — something DeSantis is taking advantage of.
Pointing to the battle DeSantis is having with Disney, Mulshine wrote, “DeSantis [is] to the right of the man who presided over the imposition of many mandates. DeSantis has even gone so far as to state that Trump himself over-reacted to COVID-19. Whatever you think of this sort of thing, it certainly shores up the governor’s support among the conservative voters who dominate Republican primaries.”
According to the columnist, polling shows a DeSantis surge that is surpassing Trump — with out of state conservatives stating they wished DeSantis was their governor when asked — and that Trump seems stuck in the weeds as far as his favorability numbers.
Looking at numbers in New Jersey’s Bergen County, pollster Rick Shaftan claimed Trump would lose to President Joe Biden in the district again — but that DeSantis could pull out a win.
As the columnist pointed out, “I attribute that to personal behavior. Trump is frequently caught making crude remarks that alienate certain voters – middle class women for example – but don’t advance his political interests or the political interests of the Republican Party. With 2024 shaping up as a year a Republican candidate could easily win, Trump would be the one political candidate who could easily lose.”
“The Republican Party leaders realize that and I suspect they will be prepared for it,” he predicted.
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