Another Divorce: Trumpanzee And Ron DeSantis

The Republican establishment wanted Adam Putnam as their nominee for Florida governor. Putnam (AKA, Howdy Doody). But then in waltzed an obscure far right extremist congressman from the Freedom Caucus, Ron DeSantis. Trump's kind of guy. Trump endorsed him and... that was that for poor Putnam, who was in the House leadership and left in 2011 to slowly and methodically take all the needed steps towards becoming governor.

• DeSantis- 913,679 (56.5%)
• Putnam- 591,449 (36.8%)

After the primary, DeSantis came right out of the box stumbling all over himself, introducing himself to general election voters with some ugly racist comments aimed at Andrew Gillum. DeSantis got crazier and crazier as poll after poll came out showing Gillum's lead increasing. Just look at the trajectory. DeSantis did-- and further unraveled.

Monday,TownHall, a right-wing hot house published a piece by conservative columnist Carl Jackson, Will Trump Regret Endorsing Ron DeSantis?. That turned out to be prophetic. "Former GOP congressman Ron Desantis may have gotten President Trump’s endorsement for Florida’s gubernatorial primary," wrote Jackson, "but he lacks Trump’s charisma and an ability to connect with an audience in the same way and that could make all the difference in November’s election... DeSantis relied far too heavily on Trump’s endorsement, as well as his national television appearances on Fox News with conservative giants Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. At times, it has felt like he’s been running for a safe seat in Congress, rather than for Florida’s top job... Desantis has largely run a nationalized race that’s centered around GOP platitudes and television appearances. His ground game is virtually nonexistent. Not to mention his political missteps along the way."

Undoubtedly, Ron Desantis has an uphill battle if he’s going to win Florida’s governorship in November. In part, because he hasn’t put in the work Adam Putnam did. Furthermore, despite his dangerous big government policies, Andrew Gillum is a handsome, charismatic and likeable guy in the vain of Barack Obama...[O]utside of garnering Trump’s endorsement he hasn’t run a very good campaign.

The next day is where the prophetic thing came into play. By afternoon Alex Isensadt and Marc Caputo were reporting in Politico that Trump was bouncing off the oval walls over DeSantis. So far Trump has kept his rage and tantrums over DeSantis to himself. But you know what he feels about betrayal: #6- Loyalty trumps talent.

[Señor Trumpanzee] has told close associates in recent days that he views DeSantis-- who won his Aug. 28 GOP primary thanks to Trump’s strong support-- as profoundly disloyal for distancing himself from the president’s assertion that the Hurricane Maria death toll was inflated by Democrats for political purposes.

“Ron DeSantis is committed to standing with the Puerto Rican community, especially after such a tragic loss of life. He doesn’t believe any loss of life has been inflated,” the DeSantis campaign said last week after Trump tweeted that "3000 people did not die” in Puerto Rico.

Trump’s comments unnerved Republicans across Florida, which is home to a burgeoning Puerto Rican population, leading DeSantis and other Republicans-- including Senate hopeful Rick Scott-- to publicly break with the president’s remark.

DeSantis’s reaction, however, particularly piqued the president. Trump views the former congressman as politically indebted to him, people familiar with the president’s thinking say, because he believes DeSantis owes his electoral success to him. The president has privately maintained that he was correct with his comments about the hurricane’s death toll, and has expressed frustration that DeSantis crossed him on the matter.

Trump’s anger toward DeSantis is rooted in the extraordinary level of political capital he expended on behalf of the former congressman, who was little-known at the time he began his campaign for governor.

The president-- over the wishes of some advisers-- endorsed DeSantis in the primary, flew down to the state to campaign with him and lavished him with praise on Twitter. DeSantis, in turn, tied himself closely to Trump, at one point even running a TV ad which featured his infant child wearing a MAGA outfit.

One person close to the president described the situation as a “divorce.” At the moment, Trump has no plans to travel to Florida to campaign for DeSantis in the November general election, according to two GOP officials familiar with the president’s schedule.

photo by Chris Fish