From godfather to enemy: find out why Trump and DeSantis can’t stand each other

The former president of U.S, donald trumpand the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, are the strongest names within the Republican Party to run for the presidency of the country in the 2024 elections. The first and second place in the polls, were once allies, Trump even became DeSantis’ godfather in the 2018 elections, however, declared rivals, and the businessman even attacks his party partner more than the current president of the country, Joe Biden, of the Democratic Party, who has also announced his candidacy to run for a second term. On Wednesday, the 24th, for example, in addition to mocking the failures on Twitter during the announcement of candidacy for the presidency of the governor of Florida, until the beginning of the afternoon he had made six publications against DeSantis against none designated for Biden. He called the governor disloyal. But, what would be behind the rift between the two candidates? Hostilities between them began long before DeSantis entered the campaign. For weeks, Trump has been multiplying the criticism of his opponent on his social media and at rallies. DeSantis, on the other hand, has counterattacked in his own way, more subtly, highlighting what hurts the most for the former president: his defeat in the last presidential election to Biden.

“DeSantis is in desperate need of a personality graft,” mocked Trump in the morning. American TV constantly shows advertisements against the governor of Florida. He estimates that the amount invested so far has been US$ 13 million (R$ 65 million). One of these campaigns makes him a pun on his name, calling him “Ron DeSalesTax”, a reference to the support given by the now pre-candidate to a tax reform bill when he was a congressman. Projections indicate that the governor of Florida will have a tough fight against the New York billionaire, a man immune to scandals, whose problems in court seem to mobilize even more his many followers. In his campaign, DeSantis will be able to rely on generous donations – $110 million (about R$545 million) so far – which he hopes will bridge the gap and flood the country with ads. In a recent video from the governor’s political action committee, a man taps a “DeSantis president” sticker to the hood of a car, over another with the slogan “Trump 2016.” The ad summarizes the message that the governor wants to convey to voters: in front of the 76-year-old tycoon, the governor of Florida wants to incorporate the new guard of the Republican Party. Trump and DeSantis were invited by the organization ‘We the People Convention’ to join forces on the same ticket for 2024, instead of “destroying each other in the next 12 months”, but, for now, there is no sign that this will happen, having in view of the almost daily attacks by the former president against the governor on his social network, Truth.

Trump’s campaign office on Tuesday asked DeSantis not to participate in the primary “for the good of the Republican Party and the nation.” But the governor goes into the 2024 campaign with the set of laws passed during his second term as governor on his resume, after winning re-election last year with historic numbers and securing a “supermajority” in both houses of the state Legislature. DeSantis has promoted an ultra-conservative agenda in Florida, with laws that further restrict abortion, prohibit talking about gender identity and sexual orientation in schools and eliminate racial diversity programs at public universities, as well as providing for the creation of a rule of migration that is among the most rigid in the country. The other declared candidates in the Republican race – Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson – barely make it above 5% in the polls. Everything points to a duel between the governor of Florida and a rising candidate in the Republican Party – quoted as the bet against Trumo – and the man who boosted him, the New York billionaire who was once in the White House and still spreads Trumpism in the country . Recent polls show that in this battle the former president is winning, as he appears almost 30 points ahead of his main opponent, who was already in first place, but lost space after Trump regained visibility when he became the first US president to be convicted. According to a recent poll by CNN, the former president has 53.9% of the voting intentions within the Republican Party, while DeSantis has 26%.

*With information from international agencies