There Is No Ron DeSantis 2.0

If you expected a New Ron DeSantis to pop out of your TV screen in the course of his Tuesday afternoon interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper — a kinder, more gentle iteration of his brass knuckles and shrapnel persona — you got nothing.

Despite his stalled position in the polls, his recent decision to dismiss almost ten campaign staffers due to a cash crunch, and a mixed report on his fundraising efforts, DeSantis remained true to the Old Ron DeSantis. Forget all the chatter that we might see a DeSantis 2.0. Rather than use a rare interview with a mainstream news organization to showcase a new strategy or tweak his image and broaden his appeal to the centrist CNN audience, DeSantis remained true to his own self.

Pretending he was talking to a Fox News audience, he rearticulated his previously articulated positions on transgender people in the military (against). He voiced his views on the “woke mind virus” (against). Abortion? (Against.) He dodged an invitation to endorse the possible prosecution of Donald Trump ( “I don’t think it serves us good to have a presidential election focused on what happened four years ago in January, so I want to focus on looking forward,” DeSantis said of the news that special counsel Jack Smith seems prepared to charge Trump over events leading up to and following Jan. 6.)

Sounding like some of the more Trumpian Republicans out there, he called China our big adversary, not Russia. Of his stalled campaign? He said he wasn’t working to juice his national poll numbers but to build a state-by-state machine to win primaries. The idea that he’s flailing? Well, he said, I’m performing fine in some state polls. “Motivated reasoning” by his opponents explains the flailing campaign stories, he insisted.

So ended the expectations that DeSantis could be anything other than what he has been. This was a reassuring moment for the voters who want a Donald Trump-type president but not Donald Trump himself. But it was also a missed opportunity for somebody who shows no sign of catapulting from his status as first runner-up to Trump and into the winner’s circle. The Tapper interview proved that for DeSantis, the song remains the same.

Did DeSantis ever have a strategy to replace Trump in the hearts of Republican voters? Is it too late for him to uncork one?

As best as can be discerned, DeSantis’ plan appears to have been to wait until the impeached and disgraced Trump collapsed under the weight of his scandals, criminality, mischief, misbehavior and hubris. Then, and only then, would he swoop in to anoint himself the victor.

He never expected Trump to bounce back from the low approval ratings of the last months of his presidency and the dismal approval ratings of the period following Jan. 6. You can forgive DeSantis his wishful thinking. Many people — present company included — thought Trump was washed up. As recently as December 2022, Trump was accurately portrayed by New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi as a beaten horse, put out to pasture in a Florida he rarely left and all but ready for the glue works. But instead of beating Trump while he was down and feeding his corpse to the fire ants, DeSantis took it for granted that his foe was history. Doesn’t he ever watch action movies? The vanquished villain almost always returns. And Trump has.

Given that Trump refuses to collapse and seems to be on his way to full reconstitution, DeSantis could use a new strategy, one that will finish Trump’s political career and crown himself the nominee. Trump voters need a much better reason to defect from Trump than DeSantis has given them. One way would be to compose a two-part campaign stump speech, the first half which will praise the Trump presidency and its accomplishment, sounding like an endorsement to most ears, and a second half that hotly damns Trump to perdition for his crimes against the Constitution and the law.

As the Tapper interview proved, DeSantis craves consistency in his messaging, so he could deliver the first half of this speech with sincerity. He loves — or at least he loved Trump at one time — and the words would flow like massage oil onto Trump followers’ skins. But then would come the reckoning, a reckoning that would give the Trump-inclined a reason to switch their allegiance to DeSantis. He could say that Trump went too far with the Jan. 6 adventure, that we should thank him for his service, but then retire him before he can lay siege to the Capitol again. And why not? If you’re running against somebody but losing, eventually you have to savage them.

Meet the new king, (mostly) same as the old king, DeSantis could sing.

Politics rarely reward candidates who entertain notions of entitlement and inevitability, candidates like Hillary Clinton in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Should DeSantis rethink his campaign in this direction, we can predict that Jake Tapper would be happy to give him another lap on his show.

******

This column does not imply an endorsement. Send endorsements to [email protected]. No new email alert subscriptions are being honored at this time. I’m fed up with my Twitter, Mastodon, Post, Bluesky, Notes, and [http://@[email protected]]Threads accounts. Only my RSS feed has any meaning for me.