Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise Between Trump and a Former Acolyte. A spat over Covid has exposed friction between the former president and a rising G.O.P. governor unwilling to curb his ambitions. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/us/trump-desantis.html
The media is fometing this whole thing. There's no clash. They want there to be a clash. They're dying for one to happen.
DeSantis Betting That Republicans Want a Stupider Version of Trump https://www.newyorker.com/humor/bor...-republicans-want-a-stupider-version-of-trump As he explores a bid for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination, Governor Ron DeSantis is betting that G.O.P. voters are looking for a stupider version of Donald J. Trump. According to a source close to DeSantis, the Florida Governor has decided to “run to the stupid of Trump” to pick up the support of voters who now consider the former President too intellectual. “When Trump recently said that he got the booster, that was the last straw,” the source said. “In the eyes of a lot of Republicans, Trump is basically Fauci now.” “Trump’s surrender to science is a slippery slope,” the source added. “It’s only a matter of time before he starts flirting with geography and grammar.” As DeSantis stakes his claim to the dumber-than-Trump lane, he spoke at a fund-raising event over the weekend. “Donald Trump believes that one plus one equals two,” the Governor told his audience. “I think the American people should be free to decide for themselves what one plus one equals.” (Please note the above is satire.)
LOL --- Australia was locked down for less days than the U.S. and the citizens had much more freedom and fewer restrictions. But that doesn't stop these GOP clowns from attacking Australia with a fictional narrative to pander political points with their base. The Covid case rate, hospitalization rate and death rate in Australia is much better than the U.S. Why Trump and DeSantis Are Talking About Australia For conservatives, the country has become a symbol of coronavirus “tyranny.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/us/politics/trump-desantis-covid-australia.html For those who haven’t been following the conversation on the right about Australia, Donald Trump’s recent entry into the chat might have been a little baffling. On Friday, the former president put out a statement that included only this tweet, from the conservative columnist Scott Morefield: “I don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that if Donald Trump hadn’t won in 2016 and appointed three SCOTUS justices, the U.S. would literally be Australia right now.” Coming just after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority blocked President Biden’s vaccine mandate for large businesses, the first half of Morefield’s tweet speaks for itself. But the second half, the context-free swipe at Australia, requires some explaining. Over the past few months, Australia — Western-allied, democratic Australia — has become a byword among conservatives for an over-the-top approach to combating the coronavirus pandemic. The government there has used aggressive vaccine mandates, quarantines, border restrictions and lockdowns to keep Covid-19 deaths below 3,000 people in a country of 25 million, with some trade-offs in personal freedoms. But the commentary on the American right has made Australia out to be some kind of authoritarian state: In National Review, the flagship magazine of mainstream conservative thought, various headlines have read “When Will Someone Hold Human-Rights Hearings on Australia?,” “Australians Are Suffering from Excessive COVID Lockdowns,” and “When a Western Society Goes Insane.” A Sept. 9 article in The Federalist declared: “The once free and open Australian continent has effectively become a giant prison for its 26 million residents.” That same month, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida mused aloud: “Is Australia freer than China, communist China, right now? I don’t know. The fact that that’s even a question tells you something has gone dramatically off the rails with some of this stuff.” On Sept. 30, Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, devoted 12 minutes of his show to Australia, documenting its supposed slide into authoritarianism. “One moment the English-speaking world is mocking China for being dystopian and autocratic,” he warned. “The next moment they’re aping China and hunting people down who are two blocks from their homes and smoking a cigarette.” Two months later, Carlson referred to a quarantine facility in Darwin, Australia, as a “Covid concentration camp.” In October, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, got into an exchange with the leader of Australia’s Northern Territory after tweeting, “I’ve always said Australia is the Texas of the Pacific. The Covid tyranny of their current government is disgraceful & sad. Individual liberty matters. I stand with the people of #Australia.” In November, Joe Rogan, mistaking satire for a real ad, posted on his Instagram account: “Not only has Australia had the worst reaction to the pandemic with dystopian, police-state measures that are truly inconceivable to the rest of the civilized world, but they also have the absolute dumbest propaganda.” These concerns prompted Van Badham, an Australian journalist, to fire back in a guest opinion essay for The New York Times entitled: “No, Australia Is Not Actually an Evil Dictatorship.” The comparisons died down for a while, but the recent standoff between Novak Djokovic and Australian tennis authorities over the Serbian star’s refusal to vaccinate has brought the topic raging back. Trump and DeSantis are also shadowboxing over their respective records on Covid, ahead of a possible clash in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, so the fact that both have mentioned Australia is especially interesting. Our man in Sydney But what’s really happening in Australia? To get some ground truth, we chatted with Damien Cave, the Australia bureau chief for The New York Times. (More at above url - -with significant detail.)
Trump aims to box out others in GOP considering 2024 presidential bid https://wset.com/news/nation-world/...hers-in-gop-considering-2024-presidential-bid As former President Donald Trump vows to “take back the White House,” other Republicans eying a run for the Oval Office face difficult decisions as they attempt to keep their 2024 options open without attracting his fury. "This is maybe the most important election we've ever had, but I do believe 2024 will be even more important," Trump said at a rally in Arizona Saturday. "This is the year we are going to take back the House, we are going to take back the Senate and we are going to take back America.” Trump’s political future was in doubt when he left Washington last January in the shadow of the Jan. 6 riot, but he has emerged as a powerful force in the GOP, prodding the party to embrace his baseless claims of election fraud. He has not announced plans to run again, but allies say he is likely to mount another campaign if President Joe Biden looks beatable next spring. Several top Republicans have indicated they would not take on Trump if he seeks the presidential nomination. Others have said Trump’s plans would have no bearing on their decision, but it currently seems doubtful anyone could mount a credible challenge to the party’s most prominent figure – and Trump aims to keep it that way. Trump has taken aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in recent days, calling him “dull” in private and publicly suggesting he is “gutless” for not confirming his vaccine booster status. According to media reports, the former president has grown frustrated that DeSantis, who he once endorsed, has not publicly ruled out running against him in 2024. Riding a wave of conservative praise of his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, DeSantis has consistently topped polls of possible Republican 2024 candidates without Trump on the ballot. The Florida governor has downplayed tensions with Trump, accusing the media of trying to rile up conflict while remaining vague about his plans beyond his 2022 reelection bid. "You cannot fall for the bait...,” DeSantis said on the “Ruthless” podcast last week. “You know what they're trying to do, so just don't take it. Just keep on keeping on. We need everybody united for a big red wave in 2022.” According to former political media consultant Tobe Berkovitz, avoiding the Trump question is the “smartest move” for prospective Republican candidates. However, as DeSantis’ experience demonstrates, sidestepping Trump is easier said than done, especially for those the former president believes pose the greatest threat to him. “Trump has great radar for spotting who the comers are,” said Berkovitz, a professor of advertising at Boston University. “As soon as he sees that you are starting to really become somebody, then he is going to make it his objective to make you nobody. That puts a politician in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation.” In a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, 59% of Americans said they would prefer if Trump does not seek a return to the White House in 2024. Nearly 70% of Republicans want Trump to run again, but GOP support has slid almost 10 points since October. That leaves Trump as a clear frontrunner in a Republican primary contest, even if his standing in a general election race is less certain. Some recent surveys have suggested Trump could beat Biden in a 2020 rematch, but others indicate Biden still holds an advantage despite his sagging approval ratings. “Credible Republicans with governing experience should challenge Trump,” former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin tweeted Monday. “There’s zero reason to nominate Trump again when R’s have a bench & Biden is polling in the 30s.” The prospect of another Trump run has stirred growing concern among the former president’s GOP critics. According to CNN, Griffin and about three dozen other former Trump administration officials held a conference call Monday to strategize efforts to fend off his influence in 2022 and 2024 – including retired Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff. "The two operative words are 'electoral effects.' How can we have tangible electoral effects against the extremist candidates that have been endorsed by Trump?" former Trump Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor told CNN. Whether Trump-aligned candidates win 2022 primaries or not, the Republican Party is on track for a strong midterm performance that will likely set the stage for its 2024 campaign. The former president intends to be a significant presence on the campaign trail, and Berkovitz said anyone who hopes to compete with him for the presidential nomination will need to do the same. “The smart thing now is to be a player in the 2022 elections, do the circuit, support people running for Congress, support people running for Senate and governor, be part of the fabric for Republicans’ winning 2022 campaign,” he said. After losing control of the House, Senate, and White House under Trump, the Republican Party’s prospects have rapidly rebounded amid widespread frustration with the Biden administration and Democratic congressional majorities. Polling released by Gallup Monday showed a 14-point shift in voter identification toward the GOP over the last year. Some Republicans have credited the party’s gains in 2021 in part to ushering Trump out of the political spotlight. He has been barred from major social media outlets for the last year, has held only a handful of rallies, and played a minor role in off-year elections last fall. “A Republican Party without Trump publicly out front is not the unpopular party Democrats thought,” said conservative radio host Erick Erickson. “That’s probably way so many anti-Trump people invest so much energy in making sure Trump stays as visible as possible.” Renominating the divisive former president could risk mobilizing moderate opposition and scaring off the suburban voters who have begun to return to the GOP. It could also help energize the voters who turned out for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and might stay home if he is not on the ballot. For anti-Trump Republicans and others who aspire to outmaneuver him for the nomination, those Trump voters remain the biggest obstacle. They are fiercely loyal to the former president, their support has been unwavering through numerous scandals and two impeachments, and they are ultimately the ones who will decide the party’s presidential primaries. “It’s moot what the party wants,” Berkovitz said. “The nature of primaries is it is the base that comes out to vote, and as of now, Trump’s strength is the base.” (Article includes Tweets.)
Looks like all of Trumpland is out to get DeSantis. Claims from Roger Stone that DeSantis is spending time with a newscast lady. Claims from a female TPUSA Ambassador that DeSantis has been banging four interns. And other piles of poop all being flung at DeSantis from Trumpers. Let's see what Trumper nutcase, Wendy Rogers from Arizona, is demanding... Trump-loving Arizona lawmaker gives DeSantis a long list of demands -- including a Florida 'audit' https://www.rawstory.com/wendy-rogers-2656430434/ On Tuesday, far-right Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers took a swipe at Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Twitter, demanding that he demonstrate his fealty to former President Donald Trump and step aside for him in 2024, along with passing a laundry list of GOP policies. Among the things Rogers demanded DeSantis do are "audit Florida" and "ban the machines" — presumably a reference to Dominion Voting Systems equipment, which is used in parts of Florida and is the subject of numerous pro-Trump conspiracy theories. An audit of Florida is an unusual request, given that former President Donald Trump carried the Sunshine State by 3.4 points — the strongest showing for a Republican presidential candidate there since 2004. But many of Trump's allies have alleged fraud schemes in states Trump won as well, with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell even baselessly alleging a plot to rig 100,000 votes in deep red Alabama for Joe Biden. (More at above url)