Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
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By day’s end, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will, it appears, at long last be a presidential candidate.
After months of building toward the reveal, DeSantis will take to Twitter alongside Elon Musk Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern and announce his candidacy. He will then appear on former Sen. Trey Gowdy’s Fox News program at 8 Eastern.
DeSantis’ choice of Twitter — specifically, Twitter Spaces, the social media giant’s live audio feature — is a deliberate one.
Opting for a social media launch followed by a Fox News exclusive, rather than the standard rally or press conference, is a signal to conservatives that DeSantis shuns much of the legacy media. Given the presiding distrust and disdain right-leaning voters express in traditional outlets, DeSantis is clearly banking on establishing some conservative street cred.
And, even though NBC News reports Musk has no intention to endorse any candidate, there are few supporters more likely to elicit a favorable response on the right than DeSantis’ billionaire cohost.
It remains to be seen, though, if this effort, or indeed the entire DeSantis campaign, will muster the support necessary to unseat former President Donald Trump, long the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
Musk has not weighed in on the strength of DeSantis’ campaign, but the Daily Wire reports that a person with connections to Musk says the billionaire expects DeSantis’ launch event to “trump the manner in which other candidates have announced because the event will be seen by [a] larger audience.”
Trump’s campaign has responded to the pending DeSantis announcement with the same dismissive and derogatory attitude it has applied to the Florida governor for months.
“Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis,” NBC quoted one Trump adviser as saying. “This way he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him any questions.”
On Truth Social, Trump shared (or ReTuthed in the parlance of the former president’s social media site) a post in which a supporter reported Trump led DeSantis by 53 points in a YouTube poll.
While a YouTube poll is far from authoritative and in no way scientific, myriad other legitimate polls from across the political spectrum show Trump remains a heavy favorite.