- Trump has called DeSantis “dishonest” as he appears to be challenging himself for the 2024 nomination.
- The dynamic is similar to 2016 when Sen. Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush were in the arena together.
- An insider dived into the duo’s similarities and differences.
Donald Trump needs loyalty.
His orders to FBI Director James Comey in the Oval Office became one of them. A defining moment in his presidency. Rejected by the American public in 2020, Trump supported his unconstitutional efforts to cling to power, while lawyers, cabinet members, and ultimately stuck with him throughout his chaotic presidency. He lashed out at his vice president for not doing so.
So it’s fitting that the traits the former president said he emphasized most have already defined the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations, speaks out against the former president. Another former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is openly running around. So did former Vice President Mike Pence, who in Trump’s eyes may have committed the most dishonest act imaginable.
None of them have the story of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has yet to formally state his intentions for 2024, but Trump is already outraged about his perceived betrayal: Trump’s team has branded DeSantis an “apprentice.”
Trump’s campaign paid a minimal amount for a series of ads bashing DeSantis, including this ad that nods to Trump’s “apprentice” past.
Team Trump Facebook/Insider
Trump has been more open about how he views rivalries than anyone else, but he’s not the first politician living in Florida to experience this.
Eight years ago, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush found himself in a similar situation. Like Trump, Bush has experienced what it’s like to see younger men overshadow the one he’s worked so hard to support.
For Bush, that man was US Senator Marco Rubio.
Bush and Rubio were allies of the Florida government, and Rubio was widely regarded as a patron of Bush. The two then entered the race for his 2016 Republican presidential nomination, and a complicated dynamic unfolded as Rubio outscored Bush.
Alex Conant, a founding partner at Firehouse Strategy and director of communications for Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, said, “It’s not at all uncommon for former allies to go head-to-head in presidential primaries. Happens in every cycle: “There is no reason for ambitious young politicians to think ‘wait their turn’.”
Indeed, Rubio and Bush had a much warmer relationship than Trump and DeSantis. Conant also said that while Bush and Rubio attracted different primary voters, operatives see Trump and DeSantis in the same “lane”. Both men seem to be on their way to nominations.
Despite the differences, the underlying cliché remains the same. It means that the student becomes the master.
“It feels like there’s some classic storyline going on,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, who was the top Democrat in the Florida Senate when Bush was governor, told an insider. It’s Oedipal,” he added, referring to a Greek tragedy in which a king unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother.
Then-Florida legislator Marco Rubio carries a sword that was gifted to him by the then-state governor. Jeb Bush at a ceremony to nominate Rubio to be the next Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, September 2005.
fill call/file/ap
A tale of two alliances
Twenty years ago, Bush was the leader of the Republican movement in Florida, spearheading school vouchers and fiscal conservatism. Rubio was a “lieutenant in the Jeb army” and was good at articulating his position, Gelber said.
When Rubio became Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in 2005, Bush handed him a gold and silver sword and hailed him as a “great conservative warrior.” Rubio, then 34, made history as the first Cuban-American to lead Florida’s House of Representatives, and Bush said he was ready for the next generation of leaders.
“For me, it was more than literal,” former Republican political operative Peter Schorsch, now publisher of FloridaPolitics.com, told Insider. “It was King Arthur who gave the weapon to Lancelot. It was the defining picture of that relationship.”
Bush encouraged Rubio to run for Senator and attended his victory party. When Mitt Romney was his 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Bush urged him to pick Rubio as his running mate. He told PBS that he has a “close relationship” with Rubio and admires him.
Nonetheless, Gelber told an insider he doesn’t believe Bush believed he was responsible for Rubio’s rise. but you can say that about every Republican 20 years ago who came to prominence in Florida.
By contrast, the DeSantis-Trump alliance was for political convenience, said David Kochel, owner of Redwave Communications and a senior strategist during Bush’s presidential campaign.
“Jeb was much more of a mentor to Marco than Trump was to DeSantis,” he said. helped the
When Trump was in the White House and DeSantis was a congressman, he frequently defended the president on Fox News about the Russia probe. I was looking for it.
In his book The Courage to Be Free, DeSantis reveals little about his endorsement conversations with Trump. He credits the president with raising his profile, but he writes that the debate performance earned him the Republican nomination for his more high-profile challenger. He also suggests that Trump’s name was responsible for the general election.
Trump said of DeSantis,beggedIn response to his support, a little-known young congressman had tears in his eyes, he told radio host Hugh Hewitt in February.
Still, polls at the time showed Trump’s support gave DeSantis a big boost, and the president ended up hosting numerous rallies for him. It contained a viral ad teaching us about Trumpism.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox and Friends in August 2018, “I can’t think of a candidate in this country who’s more committed to the president’s endorsement than Ron DeSantis.
When DeSantis became governor, he attended several events with Trump. Even today, many political insiders view DeSantis as following a Trumpian or former president’s strategy, citing examples such as his political stunt of flying immigrants to Marthatz’s vineyard.
“Trump was a personality cult, Jeb was a policy cult,” Gelber said.
When an insider asked an insider what he thought of the changing of the guard theme, which is now heating up with Trump and DeSantis, and how it compares to 2016, Rubio shrugged.
Bush declined an insider interview request through his representative, and DeSantis’ team did not respond to a request for comment.
“President Trump’s endorsement is the single most powerful tool in political history, and his America First movement has delivered overwhelming victories across the country,” Trump’s campaign spokesman Stephen Chan told Insider. “He received more than 5.6 million votes in Florida alone in 2020, more than any other candidate or politician in the state’s history. No one can even come close to generating the excitement and enthusiasm that would be possible.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio (left) hugs former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during the Republican presidential primary debate in Iowa in January 2016.
Chris Carlson/AP
presidential election results
As a first-family member of Republican politics, Bush was an early big-donor favorite in 2016. The political world was gearing up for a showdown between Bush and his two establishment candidates, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
After all, Trump’s branding of Bush as “low energy” wasn’t the only thing separating him from the nominee. Another was Rubio, who proved to be a better athlete.
It will be an uphill battle. Bush’s team took aim at Rubio’s missing votes. At CNN’s Town Hall, Bush portrayed Rubio’s youth as a defenseless presence and called him his follower in Tallahassee.
Rubio fought back violently during the debate: “I convinced you that someone attacking me would help you.
Neither Rubio nor Bush won the 2016 primary. The strategic failure was that all Republican candidates were attacking each other instead of Trump, Kochel said.
“Somebody had to get rid of Trump, but nobody made the decision to do so because the consensus view, including the expert class and the media, was that Trump would one day blow himself up. ‘ said Kochel.
Assuming DeSantis officially joins the race, the Trump-DeSantis rivalry will be considered one of 2024’s most high-profile storylines.
After Trump left the White House, a schism began between the two men. DeSantis first brought herself into the spotlight by refuting federal health advice on her COVID-19 mitigation policies. By late 2021, articles citing anonymous sources began leaking, and Trump was plagued by DeSantis.
The governor did not seek Trump’s endorsement for his bid for re-election, and Trump nicknamed him “Ron DeSanctimonias.” Since then, the front and back have been heated.
“Nobody has mastered the relationship with Trump more than Ron DeSantis,” said Scholls, who endorsed DeSantis’ Democratic challenger in the 2022 reelection race. “DeSantis is like the only person who got more from Trump than Trump got from them.”
Sam Nambug, a former adviser to the Trump campaign in 2016 and the one who brought Trump and the public into squabbling, laughed off the former president’s current position.
“Think of the times in Donald Trump’s career when someone in a business he really helped has outdone him, or in the entertainment he promoted or nurtured, someone outdone him. “That person competed with him in the same arena and beat him,” Nambug told Insider.
