Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
[elfsight_social_share_buttons id=”1″]
The prospect of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis running for president seems to really trouble former President Donald Trump, who over the weekend used an identical tactic as President Joe Biden in an attempt to politically cripple the man most likely to give Trump the most trouble in 2024.
Sunday, in response to a profile piece written about DeSantis in the New York Post, Trump accused DeSantis of being out to harm America’s elderly.
“In writer Salena Zito’s Fake News ‘puff piece’ about DeSantis, which supposedly appeared in the dying New York Post … why doesn’t she mention that he wants to cut Social Security & Medicare,” Trump wrote, in part, on a much longer Truth Social post.
In the same post, Trump stated that DeSantis is being “clobbered” in the polls and “is a RINO who is trying to hide his past.”
The former president’s post was the second in recent days in which he accused DeSantis of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare, a claim that Biden has lobbed at will against Florida Republican and Trump ally Sen. Rick Scott.
DeSantis, who has not announced his candidacy, has been on the business end of scorn from Trump’s staunchest supporters since a prediction from the worst possible source.
SOROS PREDICTS, DOES NOT ENDORSE, DESANTIS WIN
Billionaire leftist megadonor George Soros, who is on the shortlist for least favorite human among conservatives the world over, predicted last week that DeSantis would eventually best Donald Trump in a bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination should DeSantis declare.
“My hope for 2024 is that Trump and Gov. DeSantis of Florida will slug it out for the Republican nomination,” Soros said during a conference in Munich. “Trump has turned into a pitiful figure, continually bemoaning his loss in 2020. Big Republican donors are abandoning him in droves.”
Soros referred to DeSantis as “shrewd, ruthless, and ambitious” and “likely to be the Republican candidate.”
It is critically important to note that Soros did not endorse DeSantis, and in fact is not a fan of DeSantis. Soros’ hope is that DeSantis and Trump destroy one another so that Democrats can retain the White House.
This is not idle speculation from a journalist, these were Soros’ very words at the same conference.
“[A DeSantis win would] induce Trump, whose narcissism has turned into a disease, to run as a third-party candidate,” Soros said. “That would lead to a Democratic landslide and force the Republican Party to reform itself. ‘But perhaps, I may be just a little bit biased.”
Trump’s closest allies, however, have clung to the notion that Soros has endorsed DeSantis.
“The Kiss of Death — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Endorsed by George Soros,” former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake tweeted.
DeSantis has not responded to Trump. He has, instead, continued to behave in a presidential way without actually declaring himself a presidential candidate.
Monday, DeSantis will visit Chicago to speak to that city’s Fraternal Order of Police in a “Back the Blue” event. His trip has been received coldly by Chicago’s left, who have called DeSantis all things vile and accused him of visiting Chicago to sow chaos into what has become a crowded mayoral race.
While the Florida governor could throw his support behind a mayoral candidate and will no doubt have sharp words for the state of things in the Democratic stronghold, his visit is more likely a means of putting himself more onto the national stage.
DeSantis is also scheduled to visit Alabama, California, and Texas in the coming weeks, partly to promote the release of his memoir, “The Courage to be Free,” due out on Feb. 28, and partly, one can reasonably surmise, to further expand his national footprint.