How Big Is The Rift Between DeSantis And Trump Supporters?
If you go back to this time last year, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis were the two most loved figures in the Republican Party. Ron DeSantis was viewed as the man who could carry the torch for Trump and conservative populism. DeSantis was viewed as someone who could fight the left’s institutionalized power, and also govern.
DeSantis frightened the left wing. He won re-election as Florida’s governor by nearly 20 points, all while easing Covid lockdown restrictions and standing up to far left pushes on trans issues. DeSantis showed that you could stand up to the far left and still handily win elections.
In typical fashion, the left wing published articles about how the new ostensible Republican front runner was “actually worse” than the previous one. At a time where the country was under siege by left wing forces, DeSantis’ Florida represented a refuge, an island of sanity, where “woke goes to die.”
The 2022 midterms further increased DeSantis’ star power. While Republicans, notably Trump backed candidates for the Senate, drastically underperformed, Ron DeSantis turned Florida into a solid red state. At that moment, it looked like Ron DeSantis would be the 2024 Republican nominee.
But then, as many expected, Donald Trump declared he was running for the nomination again. This immediately started the rift between DeSantis and Trump supporters that we see today. Trump supporters did not want a strong challenger to Trump. They called on DeSantis to declare he was not running and support Donald Trump.
The vitriol that many Trump supporters showed for DeSantis, because he dared to run, indicated that they genuinely thought it was a possibility that DeSantis could beat Trump. They soon began to “discover” things that they disliked about DeSantis, from his awkwardness, to his tepid, partial support for helping Ukraine, to his supposed establishment Republican credentials. Funny how these things never seemed to be a problem before DeSantis announced he was running.
Now, not only do many Trump supporters not like DeSantis, they actively despise him. They claim that if DeSantis had “just stood down,” he would have been “a lock” for the 2028 GOP nomination. But because of his grave sin of not completely kowtowing to Trump, many Trump supporters claim they are done with him forever.
They point out that some anti-Trump Republicans support DeSantis. And this must mean that DeSantis isn’t a real populist, right? Or maybe it is just that the anti Trump Republicans will support anyone not named Trump who has a decent chance at the nomination.
The fact is, DeSantis actually implements the populist, anti woke, anti race-baiting policies that Trump supporters love. But he does it while being able to maintain a certain margin of suburban voter that Trump cannot. This is not an indication of being “establishment.”
With that being said, Ron DeSantis has had many awkward moments. His campaign has been lackluster and Donald Trump has sucked all he oxygen and media coverage out of the GOP primary. Maybe there was never a path to win the GOP nomination in a race Donald Trump was in.
But on the topic of the Trump v DeSantis split, it seems that DeSantis is not only not going to win the nomination, but that he has soured himself to many Trump supporters for the future. Now, it’s difficult to see how representative certain online anti DeSantis are.
Primary races also inflame tensions. Whether it was the rift between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton voters in 2008, or Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton/Joe Biden voters in 2016 and 2020, after the primary, the going coalitions largely came together.
We will see how Trump voters view Ron DeSantis in 2025 and 2026. But for now, if you asked, “how big is the rift between DeSantis and Trump supporters?” The answer you’d get is “pretty big.”