The Right Resistance: A Trump/DeSantis 2024 ticket could win, but would it ever come to pass?
We haven’t yet reached the end of April, 2023, and already some observers are suggesting the 2024 GOP presidential primary race is Donald Trump’s to lose – and therefore he should be spending his spare moments deliberating on who to select as his running mate.
The possibilities aren’t exactly endless, either, but it’s safe to say the former president, again, if he wins, will have the pick of the proverbial litter of Republicans to choose from. Everyone, that is, except for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis indicated that he doesn’t want to be Trump’s vice president and Trump, with his over-the-top barbs directed at his probable main primary competitor, has strongly implied that he’d prefer risking losing the 2024 election to appointing a man who he views as disloyal to his cause.
There’s not much space between a rock and a hard place, yet to many, the combo of Trump and DeSantis has a nice ring to it. In a piece titled, “A Trump–DeSantis Ticket Can Win in 2024”, the nearly always on point David Catron wrote at The American Spectator:
“The Democratic Party and President Joe Biden are wrecking the country. Their ongoing economic blunders, perverse cultural agenda, and corrupt foreign policy, if unchecked in the near future, will turn the United States into a dystopian nightmare comparable to Venezuela. This can be averted if former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis run together on the 2024 Republican presidential ballot. Neither can win in 2024 without the other, even if the Democratic alternative is an unpopular incumbent whose running mate is a running joke.
“DeSantis can’t win without Trump because the latter is all but certain to capture the Republican nomination. Trump can’t win without DeSantis because his legal difficulties — no matter how illegitimate — will turn off many of the independent voters who will decide the outcome of the 2024 election. A unity ticket consisting of the two most prominent anti-Beltway politicians in the country, on the other hand, will garner well over 90 percent of the Republican vote, plus it would benefit heavily from Biden’s plummeting approval rating among voters who supported him in 2020…”
Catron’s logic makes perfect sense; combining the two strongest (at least at current) candidates in the Republican world would theoretically constitute an electoral juggernaut that would leave broken-down senile Joe Biden and his cackling airhead sidekick Kamala Harris with tire marks on their faces in the middle of the road to American revival.
There are many, many good arguments in favor of the pairing. If Trump were to add DeSantis to his ticket, for example, it would force the “only Trump” contingent of voters to ease up on their criticisms of the Florida governor and admit their man is far from being as invincible as they insist that he is, and also to concede that Trump might actually need help from up-and-comers to win in 2024 rather than simply accomplishing the feat through force of personality alone.
No one who sees what's happening these days considers Trump a weakling -- and similarly, no one on the Republican side believes his legal troubles will stop him -- but further locking up the backing of people who already support him just ain't going to get the job done for Trump.
And it's further evident Trump doesn't really want to think about what comes after him at this point, but even if/when Trump earns the GOP presidential nomination and the presidency, his days at the top are numbered. Being a lame duck on his first day of his second term will be both limiting and liberating for the 47th president. Trump will enjoy the freedom of never having to hold back because of concern for his own political viability (not that he's ever given this topic a moment of his mental energy), but the Democrats in Congress as well as his own Republican establishment will harbor extra motivation to oppose anything he advocates for.
After all, a win for Trump 2.0 equates to a major loss for the DC swamp and the status quo. Trump will need to claw and scratch for anything he gets in the next Congress, and it will be far from a foregone conclusion that he can deliver on his promises. But because he's a lame duck, Trump can also turn his focus to issues that can't wait, such as making America's entitlements great -- and solvent -- again. And Trump can feel free to cut the budget where it needs to be sliced -- translation, Democrat pipedreams like “climate change” and funding for all things “woke” -- without hesitation.
The beneficiaries of this government largesse would never vote for him or Republicans anyway.
That being said, Trump will leave the Washington scene in 2029 whether he wants to or not. How many times has Trump hinted that he would vie for a third term? Tongue-in-cheek, yes, Trump just being Trump, yes, but who doubts that the lifelong tabloid celebrity, real estate developer and publicity seeker believes he will last forever? Even Trump should acknowledge that one of his major chores in 2025 and beyond is laying the groundwork for what comes after he “retires” to Mar-a-Lago or wherever the heck he chooses to settle. He'd never win the office in a million lifetimes, but maybe Trump thinks he could run for Mayor of New York City just for the fun of it?
Tapping DeSantis as his 2024 running mate could guarantee Trump-ism lasts indefinitely, or at least long enough to ensure the MAGA agenda will be enacted in a form that will cement Trump’s legacy into the history books as something other than an orange-haired rhetorical bomb-thrower. There are many, myself included, who believe DeSantis's low-key style will pay dividends on the public relations front. DeSantis hardly rolls over and exposes his soft underside to the establishment media, but he also isn't renowned for fighting the opposition just for the sake of adrenaline. Trump relishes the brawl. DeSantis savors winning.
Take DeSantis's win last week on his state's 6-week abortion ban, which replaced Florida's 15-week abortion ban that was also put in place while Ron was in the governor's mansion. DeSantis handled the subject masterfully, holding back just enough on abortion to fly under the radar and keep “The View” hags at bay while pushing for incremental improvements. As a result, thousands -- maybe millions -- of babies will enjoy the gift of life rather than having their lifeless bodies deposited in a receptacle like so much “ordinary” medical refuse. Or flushed into the sewer because of the legalized “morning after” pill.
Regardless of Trump's true feelings towards DeSantis, which are masked during the frontrunner's current drive to win the GOP nomination at all costs -- damn the consequences -- Trump must realize that the post-Trump era will be just as important as the present. Contrary to his enemies' assertions, Trump isn't so selfish that he doesn't care about anything but his own political hide. If Trump truly loves and honors America, which I believe he does, Trump will put forth the effort of choosing a successor who can get the job done.
Who else but DeSantis would that be? Nikki Haley? Be serious.
DeSantis is the only one among those being mentioned as possible Trump running mates that has an unflinching record of supporting Trump (despite the latter’s distasteful anti-DeSantis campaign) and keeping his promises to his voters in a very Trump-like way. In his work, Gov. Ron decides a course of action, and he sets it in motion. Buoyed by a friendly legislature, DeSantis has the leeway to pursue conservative agenda items that other, more politically hesitant governors, shy away from. Remember two years ago when South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, under pressure from “woke” lobbyists, vetoed a bill to protect girls in women's sports? That very visible capitulation severely damaged Noem's reputation and credibility in the blink of an eye. Can anyone see DeSantis doing something equally spineless?
Not likely. But there’s also the mystery of whether DeSantis would entertain an overture from Trump at this point to be his veep. Egos are what they are, but the wildly successful Florida governor certainly hasn’t merited a lot of what Trump’s thrown his way, especially by demagoguing the Social Security/Medicare issue like Democrats do. DeSantis must think, ‘What have I done to deserve this from Trump’?
DeSantis has received some support lately from former conservative Republican colleagues in Congress who’ve vouched for DeSantis’s conservative bona fides, so having Trump claim that DeSantis isn’t loyal to conservatism can’t survive the laugh test. It’s understandable how Trump hopes to brand DeSantis before the race even starts, but people cringe when they see any good man being treated unfairly.
Could DeSantis eventually be persuaded to let bygones be bygones and open up to serving as Trump’s vice president? One term as Trump’s righthand man would set DeSantis on a sure-thing course for 2028, and would also help earn appreciation from the millions of Trump fans who are suspicious of everyone else.
It’s easy to speculate on the potential benefits of a Trump/DeSantis 2024 Republican ticket, but a lot will happen between now and the nominee’s “time for choosing” sometime next year. Trump could enhance the possibilities for such a match by keeping the contest between the lines and sticking to talking about the need to beat Joe Biden. The rest is merely hot air and conjecture.
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