You may not have noticed, but the 2024 Republican primary battle is already raging. Candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, among others, are already positioning themselves for a run at the White House. Of course, former President Donald Trump is also teasing and toying with the idea, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll eventually pull the trigger and join the race or not. While no one has “officially” launched a campaign or entered an exploratory phase, the jockeying for a lane is abundantly clear.
While early allies, Trump and DeSantis have been trading media barbs lately, with each man referring to the other in passing, though usually not by name:
For months, former President Donald J. Trump has been grumbling quietly to friends and visitors to his Palm Beach mansion about a rival Republican power center in another Florida mansion, some 400 miles to the north.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a man Mr. Trump believes he put on the map, has been acting far less like an acolyte and more like a future competitor, Mr. Trump complains. With his stock rising fast in the party, the governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside if Mr. Trump runs for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
“The magic words,” Trump has said to several associates and advisers.
Trump wants DeSantis to bow and say he wouldn’t consider running in 2024 if the former president does. Others, like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, another prominent populist Republican, have made such a pledge. DeSantis has refused to bend.
The most recent dig DeSantis made against Trump was regarding the move to lock down the country in March of 2020 during the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said one of his biggest regrets in office was not speaking out “much louder” in March 2020, when former President Donald Trump advised the nation to stay home to slow the fast-spreading coronavirus.
“I never thought in February, early March, that (coronavirus) would lead to locking down the country,” the Republican governor told the hosts of the conservative podcast “Ruthless” during an episode recorded Thursday. “I just didn’t. I didn’t think that was on the radar.”
DeSantis blamed Dr. Anthony Fauci for the lockdowns, which is mostly true. However, the authority ultimately came from President Trump at the time, which makes this statement an indirect critique of Trump’s early Covid-19 response.
The lane DeSantis is gunning for is to out-Trump Trump. If he can convince MAGA voters and the bulk of Republican primary voters that he could bring the Trump policies, advance the fight against Democrats, and do so without the Trump baggage, he may be able to pull some Trump voters in his direction.
Of course, Trump isn’t taking this fight lying down and has been knocking DeSantis as well, specifically calling him “gutless” for not revealing whether he received a Covid-19 booster shot:
That long-stewing resentment burst into public view recently in a dispute over a seemingly unrelated topic: Covid policies. After Mr. DeSantis refused to reveal his full Covid vaccination history, the former president publicly acknowledged he had received a booster. Last week, he seemed to swipe at Mr. DeSantis by blasting as “gutless” politicians who dodge the question out of fear of blowback from vaccine skeptics.
DeSantis has played the careful line of encouraging Covid vaccinations and booster shots but maintaining all efforts to oppose government mandates. The issue of DeSantis’ booster shot status is petty, but it’s the type of thing Trump will needle him to make him admit it or seem squishy in some way.
Trump also called DeSantis “dull” and said he has no personality or charisma, a sign that a clear cold war feud has erupted in the background between the two former allies.
The Trump-DeSantis battle will only get more intense as the year drags on and candidates start to seriously position themselves with an organized team to announce a bid for the 2024 Republican nomination. The two could always smooth things over somehow before then, but Trump usually isn’t amenable unless the smoothing comes on his terms.
DeSantis may be setting himself to take a gamble that if Republican primary voters ultimately have to decide on someone in 2024, they’ll pick the newer face with less national baggage as the standard-bearer. It’s a move that could succeed or blow up in a spectacular fashion.
For what it’s worth, DeSantis is blaming the media for the talk of a Trump feud, but he sure doesn’t seem inclined to tamp things down.
One thing’s for certain, it’s going to be a mind-boggling battle for the 2024 Republican nomination.
