The situation between former President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is spinning out of control.
The two of them once seemed like close allies; many conservatives even hoped they would run together in 2024. However, that’s now looking less likely, as the two trade accusations and insults.
It started when Trump commented on his support for the vaccine and said politicians who won’t say if they got the booster are “gutless.” Trump said they need to be proud to stand up for a vaccine that’s saved “millions” of lives.
Of course, Trump was referring to DeSantis’ refusal to say if he’s had the booster. Now, the Florida governor is hitting back; his latest charge against Trump has the potential to divide the America First movement.
What is DeSantis Saying?
Remember near the start of COVID when it was 15 days to slow the spread? That eventually became two years to shut everything down; we’re now still going with no real end in sight.
Speaking in a recent podcast, DeSantis said his biggest error in office so far has been supporting the lockdown for Florida.
Although he backed down and opened Florida back up, there was a period when DeSantis went along with the lockdown. Specifically, that time was under President Trump and the direction of Dr. Tony Fauci.
DeSantis is saying his biggest mistake was listening to President Trump and shutting down his state. This is a giant middle finger.
He’s calling Trump a coward for just going along with whatever Fauci wanted. DeSantis is also saying Trump’s lack of leadership hurt his state until he switched and did things his way.
This is a direct challenge to Trump, and the truth is a lot of conservatives will have to admit they probably side with DeSantis on this one. After all, lockdowns didn’t save lives.
States like New York that shut down for longer than Florida lost more people to COVID anyway. It was a horrible decision and part of why Florida is doing so well now is because it lifted lockdowns early on.
DeSantis says one of his biggest regrets was not speaking out "louder" on Trump admin calls for lock down during the pandemic. "And I think it knowing now what I know, then if if that was a threat earlier, I would have been much louder." About 32 mins in: https://t.co/HaR1MOfHWY
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 14, 2022
DeSantis Goes Further
DeSantis didn’t stop by trashing Trump for letting Fauci boss him around and shut the country down. He also said shutting down flights coming in from China was his idea. Trump is going to be enraged.
Shutting down visitors from China has long been one of the main things Trump boasts about in his early response to COVID. Now, DeSantis is directly saying it was his idea and Trump shouldn’t get credit for it.
This fight is starting sooner than anyone imagined; the possibility of a Trump-DeSantis alliance looks far off at this time.
No matter who you side with, you have to admit the issues being discussed are very important.
You all make it look like DeSantis is a hypocrite because he was the one who decided to lock down. But as Maggie's newspaper reported at the time, DeSantis held out against locking down until Trump pressured him to. That's what DeSantis' criticism on the podcast was really about. https://t.co/Bzzzq54KBN pic.twitter.com/ZnvL7TqF5v
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) January 15, 2022
