It's On! Trump vs DeSantis. And my money is on...

...Trump!

Not that I like Trump more (in fact I like him less). But DeSantis is not a leader. He's dry, emotionless, not ruthless enough to become the leader of the MAGA-extremists. And not brave enough to do the reckless things it would take. Whoever takes over for Trump will have to be willing to be indicted. And DeSantis is not brave enough.

Of course, this assumes that Trump won't go to prison. Which is a very big assumption. But before he does, we will see the two going head to head in the polls.

The donor class is already throwing their weight behind the don't-say-gay-fascist. Murdoch's media is already trying to change Republican minds. So it will be an interesting battle. But I think DeSantis' best chance is to see Trump in prison. Trump doesn't need the donor class as much. The media gives him a free megaphone every time he invokes his racism, xenophobia and misogyny. I think that, within today's Republican Party, this is more effective than money. And besides that, cowardly Republicans in Congress will not dare cross Trump and give MAGA-extremist challengers the opportunity to unseat them.

After all, even if Trump is in prison, he will STILL own the Republican Party.

 

I am not a fan of either, but I think DeSantis has the edge here. And it will be more interesting if the RNC stops paying Trump's legal bills if Trump decides to run.

 

Trump will drag him into the gutter where he, Crooked Donnie, resides and simply drown him in the shallows.

 

@Golem

TRUMP

desantis is a ruthless poisonous reptile, but trump eats those for breakfast. trump will suck the very electromagnetic spectrum from the atmosphere and every quarter from donor pockets and will be nominated by acclamation.

it is unlikely that trump will be indicted and jail is out of the question. that is fortunate, because martyrdom would only boost trump's cred with his lunatic fringe.

 

I reckon DeSantis. Too many states will go with DeSantis in the primaries. Trump can win a few, but not enough.

Don't forget that the only red tsunami in the midterms was in Florida. If you told me 10 years ago the GOP would be winning by 20 points and claiming Miami-Dade I would have laughed in your face.

Trump's whole claim to fame is apparently "Winning", which is pretty significantly undercut when your rival is actually winning and you aren't.

 

hopefully they drag each other down the toilet

 

You just make this stuff up, don't you? DeSantis scares the crap out our you guys, doesn't he?

 

DeSantis has been proven to be the most successful Republican when running against Democrat opposition, however Trump still has way more influence within the Republican party than DeSantis. In primarily elections I believe Trump would beat DeSantis decisively... but who knows who the Republican frontrunner could be, we certainly weren't thinking of Trump as a frontrunner in 2014. I still strongly believe Trump will be the Republican nominee, his influence in the Republican party is big, and his ego is even bigger, so there's no way he's not going to do whatever he can to be the nominee again, even if it does cost the Republican party in the end

First thing you've got to learn is Trump's ego comes first, Republicans could have very well increased their voter turnout by increasing the number of drop boxes in Republican dominated communities, and encouraging their base to drop off their ballots as soon as they can.. but ultimately mail in ballots hurt Trump's ego because he wants to maintain his claim that he won in a landslide and all of his loses were due to fraud and not due to his unpopularity outside of the Republican party.. so they instead discourage their base from using mail in ballots. The end result is more people in their base end up not getting around to voting, or they become too discouraged from the long wait at their local polling place. Hell, we've been using mail in ballots in presidential elections since the civil war, and I can remember people in my family voting for Bush in 2004 and McCain in 2008 by mail, but by 2020 they were convinced that mail in ballots were the devil.. I wonder where they got that idea?

 

Should be juicy.

Trump has a cult but Desantis is a better politician. Though I doubt Desantis in a race for president based on how he got manhandled in his Florida governor debate. And I doubt Trump in a race for president because he’s an idiot.

 

Let's just say he'll still have enough sway with enough Repubs to sabotage any national aspirations Ron has. If the primary fight gets nasty, and how could it not with Trump involved, his petulance will stand in the way of the huckster from FL. Can Ron withstand the kind of withering attacks coming from Trump he'll have to fend off? Not a chance.

 

Yes, I think his apologists are still under the hypnoses, and DeSantis it boring and authoritarian indeed. So, Trump would win the GOP nomination, and lose against a Dem candidate because there are so many people who can't stand him. If you lost to Biden, you'll lose to anyone.

Florida maintains status quo. Crist and Demmings were a lost cause because not even DNC invested in them knowing they had such slim chance that it was not worth the money.

 

Why do you say that when DeSantis so narrowly won the first term?

 

DeSantis is a talented pol. Who could have imagined successfully demonizing Disney? His weaponization of anti-wokeness was masterful. But stirring up bigotry and hate can only take him so far since he'll be in competition with Trump for the votes of that crowd.

 

It sounds a lot like you have a hateful and bigoted bias towards him.

 

To say DeSantis is not a leader is to ignore his leadership and success in Florida. Can he beat Trump in a contest -- he's certainly smart enough. It would be a good contest.

 

Oh come on. Trump lives on donations.
He is as needy as a poor man on minimum wage living on welfare. Who do you think pays all his lawyers?
I think that when Murdoch plants his feet opposite Trumps, Republicans will get so sick of Trump and his behaviour that they will see deSantis as a breath of fresh air.

 

He may if he gathers enough friends in Congress around him.

 

I love how y’all shifted from trump scares us to now santis scares us. Is that like a preprogrammed remark?

And no — they don’t scare us. I am going to enjoy watching what trump is about to do to your party though. The more y’all back away from him the more insane he will become and his base idolizes him over the party.

From one of my favorite movie lines (does not imply violence towards any party or individual, the words are just fitting)

 

The truth has been known to sound like bias to those who are willfully blind to it.

 

I agree. What wins over the Republican vote is lies. And, in this department, DeSantis is a lightweight compared to Trump. DeSantis doesn't have the guts to call out Trump on any of the REAL crimes he has committed. Trump will make up crimes in which to involve DeSantis. Remember Ted Cruz's ties to the JFK assassination? Trump has only gotten better at lying since then.

 

In 2018 DNC backed Gillum and he ran a big ad campaign + DeSantis was considered a Trump suck-up which was a turn-off for many voters. This time DNC didn't back Crist probably because they thought the money is better invested in AZ, PA, GA races where their people had a better chance. It was probably the right call from their POV, because Crist would likely would have lost no matter how big a campaign he ran. DeSantis has pretty solid Republican support in Florida.

It appeals to his supporters, but younger generations are turned off by all the social engineering he is focusing on.

 

Trump said ONE thing that was true: DeSantis owes his numbers to his support. Let's see how it goes. DeSantis might win Florida, but not any other red states. The battleground in the primaries will be California and New York. And Republicans in those states seem to be as vulnerable to lies as everywhere else. That's where Trump edges DeSantis.

They are both enormous liars. But nothing beats the sincerity with which Trump transmits his. In a party where lies are your ticket to nomination, the pathological liar is sure to prevail.

 

Oh yeah! I have said it many times. Even the remote possibility that a fascist like DeSantis might become President of the United States, however remote, should scare the crap our of every patriotic American who values people's rights.

Having said that, at this point I do think that DeSantis' probabilities of becoming the Republican nominee is remote. I see his position at a point very similar to where Jeb Bush was around this time in 2014, two years before the primaries. I think the Republican nominee is somebody who is right now standing on the sidelines. Given that Trump should be in prison by then.

 

I think DeSantis has the savvy to throw red meat right at his base and then turn around and sound perfectly reasonable to the middle. Since candidates have a different stump depending on what state they are in, he could do quite well.

Trump may have the best words; all the best words, truly terrific words, but DeSantis knows more of them.

 

desantis' biggest lie is his cooked covid numbers. he is so proud of this bullshit that he would love to compare covid response with newsome or my new favorite = michigan's whitmer.