Opinions | Can Ron DeSantis Save the GOP From Donald Trump?

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Is Mr. DeSantis afraid of Mr. Trump? Probably. Most Republican officials are. The more relevant question is whether Mr. Trump is afraid of Mr. DeSantis. If not, maybe he should.

Obviously the governor is not a natural showman like Mr. Trump. Few are. That said, Mr. DeSantis has proven to be a solid Trumpian theater practitioner. Her cheeky ad campaign from 2018 where she urges her daughter to build the wall with cardboard bricks is a classic self-libar provocation. Recently, in praising state law targeting social media companies, Mr. DeSantis accused Big Tech of treating Mr. Trump as a bigger villain than Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Florida is not a red enough state for its governor to fully write off non -conservatives. So when the occasion suits him, Mr. DeSantis uses a little light touch. Early in his tenure, he made modest appointments with his administration and supported policies that did not fit the MAGA mold. His first week in office, he launched a plan to clean up Floridas ’waters and address the effects of climate change.

Even with putting it right on the right, he doesn’t always go Full Trump. The governor aggressively cited new anti -protest laws, though he drew a clear distinction between peaceful protesters and violent rioters. Atlantics David Frum puts it this way: DeSantis practices a kind of political judo that works by using clever but limited arousal, followed by a deft, just-in-time retreat in the middle, making a resource for DeSantis.

Mr. Trump cannot fail to notice all the chaos. On several occasions he was asked if he would consider Mr. De Santis as a running mate in 2024. Both times he responded positively. This allowed Mr. Trump to recognize the popularity of governors but he also asserted his own status as the top banana. Ron? Great man! But strictly No. 2 material.

Mr. DeSantis maintains friendships with parts of Trumpworld. Notably, he connected with Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff. Mr. Meadows accompanied the governor on a recent fundraising trip out of the West. In April, the governor introduced Mr. Trump at a dinner in Mar-a-Lago hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute, of which Mr. Meadows is a senior partner. The dinner kicked off a two-day summit dedicated to building a massive dark-money machine to help conservative candidates come up with a worthwhile project for Mr. DeSantis.

It serves Mr. DeSantis so well that the former president still seems to see him as a creation of Trump who is more of an unsparing servant than a serious rival. I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him he took like a rocket ship, the former president bragged to Fox Businesss Maria Bartiromo in April, when he asked about Mr. DeSantis as a running mate. I’m in the beginning with Ron, Mr. Trump told Stuart Varney networks last month, in response to a similar question.

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