(Trends Wide) — Ron DeSantis’ decision to announce his 2024 White House run in a conversation with Elon Musk on Twitter on Wednesday will make a typically blunt statement about his campaign, the rebellious populism of the modern Republican Party and an accelerating conservative media revolution.
The Florida governor will finally launch into the race by throwing down a gauntlet to former President Donald Trump with a campaign launch strategy that frames him as the true anti-establishment maverick in the race who is out to smash the conventions of traditional presidential politics.
His choice of placement on Twitter Spaces, the site’s audio platform, also exemplifies the transformation of the Trump-era Republican Party into a party that rewards the politics of gestures and whose activists respond to the social media jungle without restraint while dismissing the traditional standards of conduct and governance.
But while Twitter’s appeal to conservative voters under Musk, who has 141 million followers, means DeSantis may be making a shrewd move in the Republican primary, this could further damage an already questionable reputation among more moderate voters who he would need in a general election by appearing on an increasingly polarizing platform.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Marathon County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner on May 6, 2023 in Rothschild, Wisconsin. (Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
That’s because Twitter, which once offered a platform for democracy movements in the Arab Spring, has been transformed by its new owner into a feverish circus of untamed free speech, conspiracy theories and unverifiable information. Just this week, a faked image of an explosion near the Pentagon went viral, sending the stock market rippling in a possible preview of a presidential campaign likely to be riddled with misinformation and AI-generated falsehoods. Musk, meanwhile, has shown a willingness to ignite his own hell on Twitter, so his increasingly prominent role suggests the 2024 presidential race could be just as turbulent as the rhetoric-plagued 2016 and 2020 races. extreme of Trump and accusations of voter fraud.
Another mind-blowing twist to election season came Tuesday with former President Trump’s virtual court appearance in a case stemming from an alleged hush-money payment to a former adult film star in which he has already pleaded not guilty. . Judge Juan Merchan set a trial date for March 25, 2024, in the middle of the primary season. The schedule raises the possibility that Trump could use the trial as a stage to drive home his claim that he is a victim of political persecution. But it also creates a risk for Trump that he could be criminally convicted while he is still fighting for the Republican nomination, an extraordinary and unprecedented scenario.
DeSantis looks to boost his strength
By choosing Twitter to make his own impact, DeSantis appears to be targeting a dramatic moment that could restore a sense of momentum to GOP primary aspirations that skyrocketed six months ago but have been undermined by his own missteps and the recent Trump’s political rebound.
By embracing Musk, DeSantis is teaming up with a hero to conservatives who have long claimed they are being censored on social media. He is attacking Trump, who was banned from tweeting by the company’s previous owners and has so far preferred his own platform, Truth Social, even after Musk restored his account. Trump’s 2016 campaign and the entire presidency unfolded in a torrent of stream-of-consciousness tweets that he used to great effect, even if he left his nation stressed and exhausted.
DeSantis is striking a splash at the mainstream media, which many conservatives criticize, by showing he is ready to bypass the regular conventions of presidential campaigns. His release will also create a stark contrast to Trump’s own rambling and even boring campaign address at Mar-a-Lago in November, which lacked any sense of political dynamism.
The Florida governor will also show how far the Republican Party has come from its roots as a bastion of tradition, and to what extent the internet and the fragmentation of the media into partisan blocs have changed presidential campaigns. In 1979, for example, Ronald Reagan announced his presidential candidacy with a speech from a cozy studio that resembled the inside of a country club. George W. Bush made his way to the White House 20 years later from a farm in Iowa. Now, the best way to reach the majority of Republican voters is online.
By breaking the mold of presidential ads, DeSantis is borrowing from Trump’s unconventional playbook. One lesson from the riotous political career of the 45th president is that anything calculated to offend liberals and mainstream media commentators is often very popular with rank and file Republican primary voters.
DeSantis is already positioning himself to the right of Trump by targeting what he calls “woke” measures on diversity, equity and inclusion and by advocating conservative positions on social issues. Now, he too is looking to steal Trump’s reputation as the great disruptor.
A shifting balance of power for conservative media
DeSantis’ announcement will also help enshrine an emerging power shift in conservative media. His choice of Twitter recognizes the social network’s importance to right-wing voters under Musk and may hasten Fox News’ turnaround as the most dynamic platform for new champions of the conservative movement. The change comes after prominent Fox News host Tucker Carlson said he would relaunch his show on Twitter after being ousted from Rupert Murdoch’s primetime lineup after the company paid $787 million to settle a lawsuit. for defamation related to his promotion of electoral lies and misinformation after the 2020 election.
With his appearance, DeSantis is driving home his argument that social media has sought to stifle conservative speech, a popular view on the right. In his autobiography “The Courage to be Free,” DeSantis criticized companies like Facebook and Twitter, under their former owners, which he said made “censorship decisions that always seem to err on the side of left-wing orthodoxy, distort the American political system.” because so much political discourse now takes place on these supposedly open platforms.”
Still, DeSantis is unlikely to turn his back on Fox, which has offered him a lot of air time, a possible sign that the Murdoch family is starting to tire of the former president.
DeSantis’ launch strategy won’t come without risk. Twitter’s untamed environment and its association with Musk threaten to undermine the case DeSantis has been implicitly making to Republican voters: that he can offer a more stable and disciplined leadership style than Trump displayed in his stormy White House tenure. .
And by avoiding the kind of big, staged political announcement in front of a huge crowd, DeSantis risks emboldenring Trump’s mocking criticism that the Florida governor is losing support by the day, after polls show he is falling behind. increasingly behind the former president, although ahead of candidates such as South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
The virtual announcement could also fuel Trump’s claims that his erstwhile protégé, whom he now accuses of treason for running for president, lacks the political chops to compete in a less controlled arena. A pro-Trump super PAC mocked DeSantis ahead of his online ad, calling it “one of the most out-of-touch campaign pitches in modern history.”
“The only thing less relatable than the launch of a niche Twitter campaign is DeSantis’ after-party at the elite Four Seasons resort in Miami,” MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned super PAC, said in a statement Tuesday.
People familiar with DeSantis’ campaign plan, however, indicated that the Florida governor would soon launch a relentless series of campaign appearances in battleground states, intended to contrast his energy with that of his oldest rivals, Trump and President Joe Biden.
The Trump team and its allies are planning an aggressive operation to try to stifle DeSantis’s launch this Wednesday. MAGA Inc. is already criticizing the Florida governor for his early support of the Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic, as it seeks to undermine his credibility among conservatives who opposed government health advice.
But this is yet another sign of how exciting the Republican primary could be. After all, it was Trump who once took all the credit for developing the vaccine during his presidency. Now her followers condemn DeSantis for trying to save lives with her.
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(Trends Wide) — Ron DeSantis’ decision to announce his 2024 White House run in a conversation with Elon Musk on Twitter on Wednesday will make a typically blunt statement about his campaign, the rebellious populism of the modern Republican Party and an accelerating conservative media revolution.
The Florida governor will finally launch into the race by throwing down a gauntlet to former President Donald Trump with a campaign launch strategy that frames him as the true anti-establishment maverick in the race who is out to smash the conventions of traditional presidential politics.
His choice of placement on Twitter Spaces, the site’s audio platform, also exemplifies the transformation of the Trump-era Republican Party into a party that rewards the politics of gestures and whose activists respond to the social media jungle without restraint while dismissing the traditional standards of conduct and governance.
But while Twitter’s appeal to conservative voters under Musk, who has 141 million followers, means DeSantis may be making a shrewd move in the Republican primary, this could further damage an already questionable reputation among more moderate voters who he would need in a general election by appearing on an increasingly polarizing platform.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Marathon County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner on May 6, 2023 in Rothschild, Wisconsin. (Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
That’s because Twitter, which once offered a platform for democracy movements in the Arab Spring, has been transformed by its new owner into a feverish circus of untamed free speech, conspiracy theories and unverifiable information. Just this week, a faked image of an explosion near the Pentagon went viral, sending the stock market rippling in a possible preview of a presidential campaign likely to be riddled with misinformation and AI-generated falsehoods. Musk, meanwhile, has shown a willingness to ignite his own hell on Twitter, so his increasingly prominent role suggests the 2024 presidential race could be just as turbulent as the rhetoric-plagued 2016 and 2020 races. extreme of Trump and accusations of voter fraud.
Another mind-blowing twist to election season came Tuesday with former President Trump’s virtual court appearance in a case stemming from an alleged hush-money payment to a former adult film star in which he has already pleaded not guilty. . Judge Juan Merchan set a trial date for March 25, 2024, in the middle of the primary season. The schedule raises the possibility that Trump could use the trial as a stage to drive home his claim that he is a victim of political persecution. But it also creates a risk for Trump that he could be criminally convicted while he is still fighting for the Republican nomination, an extraordinary and unprecedented scenario.
DeSantis looks to boost his strength
By choosing Twitter to make his own impact, DeSantis appears to be targeting a dramatic moment that could restore a sense of momentum to GOP primary aspirations that skyrocketed six months ago but have been undermined by his own missteps and the recent Trump’s political rebound.
By embracing Musk, DeSantis is teaming up with a hero to conservatives who have long claimed they are being censored on social media. He is attacking Trump, who was banned from tweeting by the company’s previous owners and has so far preferred his own platform, Truth Social, even after Musk restored his account. Trump’s 2016 campaign and the entire presidency unfolded in a torrent of stream-of-consciousness tweets that he used to great effect, even if he left his nation stressed and exhausted.
DeSantis is striking a splash at the mainstream media, which many conservatives criticize, by showing he is ready to bypass the regular conventions of presidential campaigns. His release will also create a stark contrast to Trump’s own rambling and even boring campaign address at Mar-a-Lago in November, which lacked any sense of political dynamism.
The Florida governor will also show how far the Republican Party has come from its roots as a bastion of tradition, and to what extent the internet and the fragmentation of the media into partisan blocs have changed presidential campaigns. In 1979, for example, Ronald Reagan announced his presidential candidacy with a speech from a cozy studio that resembled the inside of a country club. George W. Bush made his way to the White House 20 years later from a farm in Iowa. Now, the best way to reach the majority of Republican voters is online.
By breaking the mold of presidential ads, DeSantis is borrowing from Trump’s unconventional playbook. One lesson from the riotous political career of the 45th president is that anything calculated to offend liberals and mainstream media commentators is often very popular with rank and file Republican primary voters.
DeSantis is already positioning himself to the right of Trump by targeting what he calls “woke” measures on diversity, equity and inclusion and by advocating conservative positions on social issues. Now, he too is looking to steal Trump’s reputation as the great disruptor.
A shifting balance of power for conservative media
DeSantis’ announcement will also help enshrine an emerging power shift in conservative media. His choice of Twitter recognizes the social network’s importance to right-wing voters under Musk and may hasten Fox News’ turnaround as the most dynamic platform for new champions of the conservative movement. The change comes after prominent Fox News host Tucker Carlson said he would relaunch his show on Twitter after being ousted from Rupert Murdoch’s primetime lineup after the company paid $787 million to settle a lawsuit. for defamation related to his promotion of electoral lies and misinformation after the 2020 election.
With his appearance, DeSantis is driving home his argument that social media has sought to stifle conservative speech, a popular view on the right. In his autobiography “The Courage to be Free,” DeSantis criticized companies like Facebook and Twitter, under their former owners, which he said made “censorship decisions that always seem to err on the side of left-wing orthodoxy, distort the American political system.” because so much political discourse now takes place on these supposedly open platforms.”
Still, DeSantis is unlikely to turn his back on Fox, which has offered him a lot of air time, a possible sign that the Murdoch family is starting to tire of the former president.
DeSantis’ launch strategy won’t come without risk. Twitter’s untamed environment and its association with Musk threaten to undermine the case DeSantis has been implicitly making to Republican voters: that he can offer a more stable and disciplined leadership style than Trump displayed in his stormy White House tenure. .
And by avoiding the kind of big, staged political announcement in front of a huge crowd, DeSantis risks emboldenring Trump’s mocking criticism that the Florida governor is losing support by the day, after polls show he is falling behind. increasingly behind the former president, although ahead of candidates such as South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
The virtual announcement could also fuel Trump’s claims that his erstwhile protégé, whom he now accuses of treason for running for president, lacks the political chops to compete in a less controlled arena. A pro-Trump super PAC mocked DeSantis ahead of his online ad, calling it “one of the most out-of-touch campaign pitches in modern history.”
“The only thing less relatable than the launch of a niche Twitter campaign is DeSantis’ after-party at the elite Four Seasons resort in Miami,” MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned super PAC, said in a statement Tuesday.
People familiar with DeSantis’ campaign plan, however, indicated that the Florida governor would soon launch a relentless series of campaign appearances in battleground states, intended to contrast his energy with that of his oldest rivals, Trump and President Joe Biden.
The Trump team and its allies are planning an aggressive operation to try to stifle DeSantis’s launch this Wednesday. MAGA Inc. is already criticizing the Florida governor for his early support of the Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic, as it seeks to undermine his credibility among conservatives who opposed government health advice.
But this is yet another sign of how exciting the Republican primary could be. After all, it was Trump who once took all the credit for developing the vaccine during his presidency. Now her followers condemn DeSantis for trying to save lives with her.
