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On Wednesday, CNN released a new poll, conducted via SSRS, showing how Trump’s stance with his party has softened. In February, a portion of Republicans were looking for Trump to be the party’s nominee in 2024. That dropped to about a third. Of the 6 in 10 Republicans who now say the party deserves to name someone else, about 2 in five say that user deserves to be DeSantis, and more than a fraction say they don’t care who he is. That DeSantis number nearly doubled over the course of the year.
That’s partly because Trump is seen as too excessive, even among members of his own party. Just over a third of Americans say President Biden is too excessive in his policies; two-thirds say the same thing about Trump. Among Democrats, 4% say Biden is too excessive. Among Republicans, 45% say Trump is.
This Wall Street Journal ballot asked Republicans how favorably they view Trump and DeSantis. More than 8 in 10 people said they have a favorable opinion of DeSantis. Only 7 in 10 said the same about Trump, reflecting trends shown on other ballots.
Again, his reduced position is not just due to the fact that Trump is viewed with developing skepticism. It’s also because DeSantis has tried for years to position himself as appropriate for Trump’s base. And over the past two years, as Trump’s strength has shrunk in both politics and the national conversation, DeSantis has had no qualms about his position to appeal to the Republican base. This week, for example, he announced an effort to drag down fees from scammers who oppose coronavirus vaccine advocates, mirroring his call last year. to investigate alleged voter fraud. In all cases, the cause was as much political (or perhaps much more political) as it was legal.
One understated detail, however, of DeSantis’ efforts over the past two years is the way he has addressed the issues of the culture war that have even put Trump at a disadvantage. DeSantis investigated his identity as the guy who opposed coronavirus restrictions early on, promoting “Don’t Fauci my Florida” curtains on his crusade site even as Floridians were dying of covid-19 in the summer of 2021 at disproportionate rates. His new effort to target vaccine supporters is just the herbal evolution of his long march toward vaccine skepticism. He presents himself as the guy who digs up all these heavy, even destructive, things about the coronavirus, things he’s inevitably going to check to put at Trump’s feet.
DeSantis has also been at the forefront of the right’s fixation on gay and transgender issues. His advocacy of a policy that limited teachers’ ability to talk about same-sex relationships with academics has become the best point of friendship for the far right. The gruesome framing of belligerent parties to measures such as “preparers” was largely downstream of comments by Christina Pushaw, a key adviser to DeSantis. Here, too, Trump is at a disadvantage: Even following popular sentiment, he presented himself as the best friend of gay Americans in 2016, although his presidency did not reflect this. He has followed the anti-transgender rhetoric of the right-wing fringe, but his record on LGBT issues is sometimes softer than DeSantis’.
At the same time, DeSantis seeks to do away with Trump’s established rhetorical advantages. Florida’s governor has said that Florida is “the position where awakening is going to die,” whatever “awakening” means. He advocated for legislation that targets “critical race theory” (itself a malleable term) and enacted the same kind of chauvinistic educational oversight that Trump advocated as president. Then there’s its cascade of immigrants flying to Martha’s Vineyard, an effort to take advantage of a popular right-wing tactic to draw attention to immigration.
If we use Fox News as a kind of thermometer of right-wing priorities, we see immigration and “critical race theory” as popular talking points. a lot. But DeSantis can point to not only the rhetoric on each of those issues, but also the efforts to apply political force to them, otherwise Trump is at a disadvantage.
But, then, we have already realized this. We might have noticed dozens of Republican presidential candidates emerging as party favorites only to give in to scrutiny, attacks, or their own wobbly crusade efforts. DeSantis benefits from not being Trump, but he also benefits from not having been under really extensive political pressure. for 4 years. His re-election crusade is relative child’s play and he worried about shooting only left. If he announced a presidential candidacy, which is almost certain, that would change. After all, it’s not just Trump’s gloveless attacks that he would want to defend himself. There will also be other applicants hoping to see DeSantis follow in the footsteps of former presidential frontrunners like Rudy Giuliani or Scott Walker or Jeb Bush.
If we’re going to use Fox News as a thermometer, it’s worth noting the fracture.
Last month, Trump was talked about on Fox 3 times more than DeSantis, and Fox rarely has the habit of criticizing the former president. times moreArray
Trump’s credit since July 2015 is that he has an unshakable, grassroots base of Array, an organization Fox News has long tried to adopt as its own. enough to start getting ahead with contests. He has amassed enthusiasts as president, some of whom might now look the other way. But if that core is big enough and can erode DeSantis’ new Array core, Trump could end up having less disruption than he does. Lately it seems.