() — Donald Trump and his allies plan a coordinated effort to end the media cycle surrounding Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch, which will include videos and a social media blitz supported by high-profile and conservative-aligned commentators. with Trump, sources familiar with the plans told .
The messaging strategy will involve some Trump surrogates showing up in Miami, where DeSantis will meet with donors beginning Wednesday. The Trump-aligned Make America Great Again, Inc. Political Action Committee will also have a presence in the city. The group plans to place a truck playing a new attack ad around the Miami hotel where DeSantis will be staying.
The 60-second digital ad takes aim at DeSantis during his tenure as a congressman in Washington, describing the Florida governor as a “swampy creature” from Washington who was trying to cut rights while Trump was in the White House. The ad features a side-by-side comparison of Trump’s and DeSantis’ time in Washington and marks their political differences.
At one point, the former president recorded a video to possibly release alongside DeSantis’s announcement, according to a source with knowledge, but it’s unclear if Trump’s team plans to go public at this time.
DeSantis will announce his intent to run for the 2024 White House on Wednesday night in a conversation with Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Close allies of former President Trump have urged him to reactivate his once-prolific Twitter account, which he regained access to last year after being banned following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Many of his allies believe that using Twitter will allow him to control the narrative in the GOP primary.
Trump’s allies and advisers have spent months brainstorming about how best to deal with DeSantis’ impending announcement. As part of the effort, the Trump campaign and its allies are expected to attack DeSantis over a wide range of past policy stances, including entitlement reform, trade policy, China and his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.
DeSantis is widely seen as Trump’s main rival in the GOP primary, and Trump has been treating the governor like a candidate for months. The former president accused DeSantis of disloyalty after Trump endorsed him in his 2018 gubernatorial primary in Florida. DeSantis relied heavily on Trump’s endorsement, which propelled him into the race. Since then, DeSantis has single-handedly gained popularity among Republicans, stoking the culture wars through policies targeting schools and businesses. DeSantis won his second election in a landslide in 2022, as Trump saw many of his preferred candidates fail in the midterms.
Despite rising Trump polling numbers indicating a political rebound for the former president — including one from released Wednesday — his advisers have said they continue to believe DeSantis, a rising star in the Republican Party, is a threat. MAGA Inc. has spent more than $8 million on ads against DeSantis as the Florida governor and his supporters have scrambled to present him as a viable alternative to the former president, who remains embroiled in legal battles.
On Monday, MAGA Inc. posted a video on social media criticizing DeSantis’ response to the covid-19 pandemic. Trump aides have privately expressed concern that the issue, including the promotion of Covid vaccines, could be a potential weakness for the former president among Republican voters, as DeSantis has sought to side with Trump.
“My opinion is that if you get a vaccine, the vaccines are effective, you’re immune,” DeSantis says in a clip included in the video. “If you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, the probability that you will become seriously ill or die from covid is practically nil,” he says in another video.
The video highlights DeSantis’ early and vocal support for the covid vaccine. In recent years his support has waned and he even pushed to permanently ban covid-19 mandates in the state. She also declined to say if she received a covid-19 booster shot.
DeSantis gave a glimpse of a possible line of attack against Trump during a speech in Orlando over the weekend. “The way they weaponized these covid vaccines was a massive incursion on our freedoms,” DeSantis said. ‘We can’t allow that'[la Operación] Warp Speed’ again trumps informed consent in this country.”
