Trump has hired several of Ron DeSantis’s former staffers who hate him and want to destroy the Florida governor in a match-up of thin-skinned candidates.
These advisers, lawmakers, and operatives personally know DeSantis or used to work for him. Now, some of them are working to reelect Trump and have brought their intimate knowledge of DeSantis’ operations, and also what makes Trump’s likely 2024 primary rival tick. Just as importantly, some of the Team-DeSantis-turned-Team-Trump contingent have talked to the ex-president about how best to relentlessly mess with DeSantis, assuring Trump that the Florida governor is uniquely “insecure” and “sensitive,” and that it’s easy to get in his head, two such sources who’ve spoken to Trump tell Rolling Stone.
It’s one of the reasons why the open political warfare between Trump and DeSantis is only expected to get nastier in the coming months. “If Ron thinks the last couple months have been bumpy, he’s in for a painful ride,” says a third source, who used to be on Team DeSantis and is now in the Trump orbit.
This person continues, “The nature of the conversations among the people who used to work for Ron is just so frequently: ‘OK, how can we destroy this guy?’ It is not at all at a level that is normal for people who hold the usual grudges against horrible bosses. It’s a pure hatred that is much, much purer than that … People who were traveling with Ron everyday, who worked with him very closely over the years, to this day joke about how it was always an open question whether or not Ron knew their names … And that’s just the start of it.”
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The stories of DeSantis treating the people around him so badly that they hate him are both becoming common and the stuff of legend, where DeSantis’s reportedly bad treatment of others is extreme even for politics.
The 2024 Republican primary looks like it will be a 76-year-old man facing dozens of felony counts hurling insults back and forth with a little fella in Florida who hopes to grow up to be just like him someday. The corporate media is already going into a frenzy over this primary, but it looks like it will be two thin-skinned snowflakes tossing insults at each other while trying to prove who can be the most heartless and cruel.
None of this will be what the democratic process is supposed to look like, but it will probably put President Joe Biden in a great position to win a second term.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
