Tag Archive for: Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis Suspends Presidential Campaign, Endorses Trump

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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Sunday that he will be suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump to be the GOP nominee in 2024.

DeSantis made the announcement in a video posted on Twitter, with a caption reading “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” In the video he explains his decision to drop out and says Trump will be the best person to take on President Joe Biden.

“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance and they see Democrats using lawfare to this day to attack him. While I have had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear,” he says in the video.

“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear — a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism — that Nikki Haley represents,” he adds.

WATCH: 

The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley remains in the race.

Haley offered her well-wishes to DeSantis during a campaign event in New Hampshire.

“He ran a great race, he’s been a good governor, and we wish him well. Having said that, it’s now one fella and one lady left. There were fourteen people in this race, there were a lot of fellas. All the fellas are out, except for this one. And this comes down to, ‘What do you want?’ Do you want more of the same or do you want something new?”

Donald Trump had predicted DeSantis would end his campaign after learning he was canceling media appearances.

“That’s a big deal. He’s canceling everything,” Trump said during a Saturday interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. “History says that’s usually not a good sign for a campaign, so I see he’s, probably, getting out. Look, he did very poorly, although he did much better than Nikki — quite a bit better than Nikki in Iowa. I would think he’s getting out. I don’t see a path. I don’t see a path for her either. ”

The GOP frontrunner “officially retired” the nickname of his rival Sunday.

The Trump campaign released a statement Sunday saying they were “honored” by the Florida governor’s endorsement, before calling on “all Republicans to rally behind President Trump.”

At a Rochester, New Hampshire rally Sunday night, former President Trump offered his congratulations to his former rival “for running a great campaign for president” and thanked him for his endorsement before urging supporters to unite to “defeat Crooked Joe Biden.”

(This is a developing story. More information will be added as it becomes available.)

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

RELATED VIDEO: Mark Penn: If Trump Wins New Hampshire by More than 15 Points, the Race Is Over

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JOSH HAMMER: Let’s Face It, The GOP Is Still Donald Trump’s Party

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Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for president. Some rival campaigns may yet persist, and it is of course true that the overwhelming majority of the delegates for this summer’s Republican National Convention have yet to be allotted.

But after this week’s Iowa caucuses, in which the 45th president delivered a crushing blow to both runner-up Gov. Ron DeSantis and third-place finisher former Gov. Nikki Haley, there can be no serious doubt: The GOP is still Donald Trump’s party, and he will be the party’s nominee for the third straight presidential election.

I do not arrive at that conclusion lightly. I am a Floridian who moved to the Sunshine State during the COVID-19 pandemic, as so many others did, in no small part due to Gov. DeSantis’ exceptional leadership and statesmanship. I am deeply grateful for his stewardship of our great state, which has moved from purple to solid-red under his watch.

Accordingly, this column has been supportive of his presidential aspirations, even as his campaign has struggled to gain traction.

But as the Florida legislative session swings into high gear and as the DeSantis campaign grapples with a 30-point blowout in Iowa after betting it all on a highly touted grassroots mobilization effort, the “full Grassley” visiting of all 99 Iowa counties, and endorsements from popular Hawkeye State leaders such as Bob Vander Plaats and Gov. Kim Reynolds, it is time to face reality.

There is no shame in losing a primary to a former president who remains highly popular within his party. And there is also no dignity in needlessly prolonging the inevitable when there is no viable path to victory. That is now the case for DeSantis; following Iowa, there is simply no path to victory.

And the longer DeSantis stays in, especially given the polls showing him in a distant third in both New Hampshire and South Carolina, the more damage he does to his already weakened standing in Tallahassee — and the less likely he is to lead Florida through another dynamic legislative session.

It is time for Ron to come home. Doing so swiftly is not merely in the best interest of the Republican Party, as it revs up for an expensive general election matchup against an incumbent president; it is also in the best interest of Ron DeSantis himself. DeSantis is a smart man and a serious leader who may yet be president one day.

Surely, he sees the writing on the wall, his rhetoric this week notwithstanding. No baseball fan likes seeing a washed-up ex-all-star hang up the spikes too late, and no political junkie likes seeing a once-formidable presidential candidate endure multiple distant third-place finishes, as the polling now suggests will be the case for DeSantis in the Granite and Palmetto States.

Nikki Haley should, of course, also drop out. She is going to lose in New Hampshire, and she will get crushed in the upcoming primary in her home state. But as much as Haley’s own brand of uninspiring, corporatist Republicanism may represent an unwelcome return to the GOP’s forgettable Bush-era yesteryear, she is at least polling high enough in New Hampshire where it is not delusional for her to remain in the race through Tuesday’s primary there.

The same cannot be said for DeSantis, who polls very poorly in New Hampshire. (DeSantis seems to now be focusing on South Carolina, where he is not faring much better in the sparse recent polling.)

Haley is a paradigmatic spiritual “BoomerCon” (boomer conservative) and doctrinaire neoconservative who, like the Bourbons of old, has “learned nothing and forgotten nothing” from the GOP’s post-2016 course-correcting turn toward nationalism and realism. She is the wrong choice, at the wrong time, to steer the Republican Party — let alone the United States itself — through this era of ascendant populism and de-globalization.

Nikki Haley must be defeated in this primary. Most cross-tab polling this cycle shows that the leading second choice pick for those who would ideally like DeSantis, this columnist very much included, is not Haley — it is Trump. If that is the case, then DeSantis should strongly consider dropping out even before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, so as to maximize Trump’s chances of delivering a crushing, campaign-ending defeat to Haley.

There is no honor in denying the undeniable. Donald Trump is going to be the G OP presidential nominee. I look forward to voting for him against Joe Biden. I hope my fellow conservatives all follow suit.

To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

JOSH HAMMER

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott Breaks Precedent, Endorses Trump Over DeSantis

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Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott released an op-ed Thursday morning endorsing Donald Trump for President in 2024 over the state’s governor Ron DeSantis.

Scott published the piece for Newsweek, saying he thinks it is time for the Republican party to unite behind Trump and said although he knows most of the GOP candidates running for President, he believes Trump is the only one who can beat President Joe Biden. The Florida Senator also said although he will not ask for the other candidates to drop out of the race, he believes the stakes are too high and that Trump is the best option for the country.

“I am often asked whether this is the beginning of the end of America. It will be, if we stop fighting and cede our country to the incompetent, radical Democrats who are destroying the fundamental values that make America great. We of course do not even know if Joe Biden is lucid enough to be aware that his administration is destroying America. Biden’s presidency has become an embarrassment to his political party and to our entire nation,” Scott wrote.

“I am optimistic that we can return America to its rightful position of economic and military strength and the undisputed moral leader of the free world, but only with strong leadership in the White House. That is why I support my friend President Donald J. Trump to be the 47th president of the United States and encourage every Republican to unite behind his efforts to win back the White House,” he continued.

“It’s time for the Republican Party to come together, behind one candidate, and declare with one voice that we are united in our efforts to defeat Joe Biden and rescue America,” Scott added.

“I know most of the candidates running for president, and I respect their decision to put themselves through this very difficult process. They’ve made their case to voters, laid out their agendas and their plans, and told their stories. Make no mistake: every single one of them would be a better president than Joe Biden. But Republican voters are making their voices heard loud and clear. They want to return to the leadership of Donald Trump,” he said.

National polling shows Trump ahead of other GOP candidates by a large lead. Other polls also show Trump beating Biden in the general election.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

DeSantis Reportedly Fires Campaign Manager

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Ron DeSantis fired campaign Generra Peck on Tuesday, replacing her with longtime aide James Uthmeier.

Peck will stay on as the campaign’s chief strategist, The Messenger first reported. Uthmeier most recently served as DeSantis’ gubernatorial chief of staff. The campaign is also hiring David Polyansky from the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, communications director Andrew Romeo said.

“James Uthmeier has been one of Governor DeSantis’ top advisors for years and he is needed where it matters most: working hand in hand with Generra Peck and the rest of the team to put the governor in the best possible position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden. David Polyansky will also be a critical addition to the team given his presidential campaign experience in Iowa and work at Never Back Down. We are excited about these additions as we continue to spread the governor’s message across the country. It’s time to reverse our nation’s decline and revive America’s future,” Romeo said in a statement to the Daily Caller.

Peck ran DeSantis’s successful 2022 reelection bid, although she had no national campaign experience. Uthmeier has never run a campaign at either the state or national level. Polyansky served on the 2008 Mike Huckabee and 2012 Michele Bachmann presidential campaigns, and has since worked as a consultant.

The DeSantis campaign is currently attempting a reset, laying off staffers and putting the candidate in front of more mainstream media outlets. Since entering the race in late May, DeSantis has dropped 5.5 points in the FiveThirtyEight polling average, and former President Donald Trump’s lead over the governor has grown from 34 to 38 points.

AUTHOR

MICHAEL GINSBERG

Congressional correspondent.

RELATED ARTICLE: Harris Faulkner Asks DeSantis Straight Up Why His Campaign Is A ‘Mission Failure’

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Christian Voters Are Likely To Put Their Faith In Trump. Here’s Why

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  • The Christian vote in the 2024 primaries is an important demographic for Republicans, and religious leaders that spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation indicated that only one candidate really stands out.
  • Recent polls show former President Donald Trump winning the GOP nomination spot by as much as 26%, while his chances against President Joe Biden still present a large question about whether or not a 2024 rematch would place Trump in the White House.
  • “[W]hen you look at how [Trump] performed as president in what he did in terms of advancing or restoring policies that respected faith and upheld a moral foundation, no one comes close,” Tony Perkins, the founder and president of the Family Research Council, a Christian advocacy organization, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

As the presidential primaries approach, religious advocates believe that Donald Trump, of all Republican candidates, is likely to claim a large majority of the Christian vote.

Republican presidential candidates have been working overtime to impress religious Americans, with many attending the recent Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in June and spending large amounts of time among religious voters in battleground states. Former President Donald Trump is leading the GOP contenders, and religious leaders that spoke to the DCNF believe his previous record on issues of faith, life and freedom will win him the Christian vote.

Evangelicals, particularly, are keen to see the former president back in office, according to Tony Perkins, the founder and president of the Family Research Council, a Christian advocacy organization, that spoke to the DCNF.

“Donald Trump kind of raised the bar, which sounds a little odd on its face, because he certainly was not a candidate when given his background, and everything that evangelicals would have been drawn toward,” Perkins said. “But when you look at how he performed as president in what he did in terms of advancing or restoring policies that respected faith and upheld a moral foundation, no one comes close.”

Trump’s alleged affair with Stormy Daniels, his infamous, expletive-filled Twitter rants against various media, celebrity and political figures and his more recent trouble with the law might otherwise preclude him from gaining such strong support from religious circles; however, Trump’s policies and stances during his first term as president often resonated with those same voters who have often felt ignored by more mainstream Republicans, according to Perkins.

Trump made waves as the first sitting president to appear publicly at the March for Life, an annual pro-life march in D.C. that usually draws upwards of 10,000 people. In 2019, he announced that his administration was working on creating a new federal policy that allowed religious adoption facilitators, homeless shelters, health care clinics and other organizations to participate in grants from the Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2017, the former president issued an executive order to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to defend laws like the “Religious Liberty Accommodations Act,” which allows religious Americans to adhere to their faith on issues of same-sex marriage and gender identity and sexual orientation, that was passed in Missouri.

In 2020, Trump took 80% of white evangelical voters in 2016 and 76% in 2020, while a March poll found that in a head-to-head matchup, Trump is currently holding 51% of the evangelical vote over DeSantis’ 42%, according to Reuters.

“I think he’s the undisputed favorite,” Robert Jeffress, the pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and host of the radio show Pathway To Victory, told the DCNF. “I made a prediction shortly after he announced his candidacy last November. I said that eventually, evangelicals would coalesce again around Trump, some of them might try to kick the tires of different candidates, but eventually, they would coalesce. What I didn’t realize was that ‘eventually’ would come sooner than anybody expected.”

The Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference this year hosted many of the top GOP contenders to give them a chance to speak to evangelical Christians and appeal for their support. Trump had a strong base of support among the attendees, with many booing fellow candidate Chris Christie during the conference for criticizing the former president, while other potential nominees avoided mentioning Trump entirely.

Trump is currently leading the pack in the Republican primaries by significant margins, according to Real Clear Politics. The most recent poll from the Economist/YouGov showed the former president winning the nomination spot by 26%.

Despite this, Trump has been trailing President Joe Biden in the polls. One poll from NBC News had Biden beating Trump at 49% to 45% but a new poll by the Morning Consult showed Trump closing the gap at 42% to Biden’s 43%.

Perkins told the DCNF that for Trump to keep up the momentum he will need to “cast a vision of the future” but said that regardless he felt Christians’ inclination was still to vote for the former president due to his previous record on religious issues.

While Trump appears to have a hold on Christian Americans, other candidates have chances at making inroads by focusing on issues like abortion, where the former president has struggled lately.

Tim Head, the executive director for the Faith and Freedom Coalition, an organization dedicated to “educating, equipping, and mobilizing people of faith,” agreed that Trump has a solid core percentage of the Christian vote, but cautioned that nothing is guaranteed since the election is still many months away.

Head explained that candidates like DeSantis could have an advantage over Trump in the pro-life arena after the former president went back and forth on a federal ban and criticized the governor for signing six-week abortion protections in May.

“Governor DeSantis has a lot of influence in this type of area, and he’s using that influence to deliver victories for religious voters on life, religious liberty [and] certainly on traditional family values,” Head told the DCNF.

Jeffress conceded that in the event that Trump does not become the nominee, he believed Mike Pence would be the one to receive the full support of Christian voters due to his commitment to his faith and his involvement in the Trump administration.

Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of the Family Leader, a Christian advocacy organization in the key primary state of Iowa, told the New York Times that Vivek Ramaswamy, who is Hindu, impressed him despite the difference in faith because he was willing to answer the “deeper questions.”

The odds, however, are against any other candidate taking the nomination, according to Jeffress and Perkins.

“When you look at his four years as president and how he championed all of these issues, and look at how he continues to push back on the left,” Perkins told the DCNF. “He puts himself into a position that many who have been marginalized and attacked by the culture identify with. So I think he’s in a very strong position from this standpoint.”

Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Pence did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ron DeSantis Files To Run For President

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Wednesday to run for president in 2024.

DeSantis has been widely expected to jump in the Republican primaries for months and has consistently polled in the double digits alongside former President Donald Trump. The FEC filing comes ahead of his highly-anticipated presidential announcement at 6 p.m. Wednesday on Twitter Spaces with CEO Elon Musk, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed.

The governor has been traveling to key early primary states, touting his book “The Courage To Be Free” and pitching his “Florida Blueprint” agenda. DeSantis has already secured key endorsements from state legislators in Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida, as well as top Republicans in Congress like Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Bob Good of Virginia.

DeSantis’ entrance into the Republican primaries comes after he wrapped up Florida’s legislative session filled with GOP-backed bills. The governor scored conservative wins on parental rights in education, school choice, gun rights, immigration, the death penalty, abortion and plenty more.

The governor changed his political Twitter account handle Monday, preceding with his imminent presidential launch. The governor’s account had previously been used for both Florida gubernatorial campaigns, so he dropped the “FL” from his handle “@RonDeSantisFL.”

On a private phone call last week held by Never Back Down, the political action committee tasked with drafting DeSantis into the race, DeSantis indicated that he is the only Republican contender who can win the GOP primary and beat President Joe Biden in a general election.

“You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,” DeSantis said. “Biden, Trump and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him.”

The Real Clear Politics (RCP) average for a 2024 national Republican primary, based on polls conducted between April 21 and May 18, indicates that DeSantis has 19.4% support.

The governor joins a growing GOP primary field with former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and conservative radio personality Larry Elder, with former Vice President Mike Pence soon to follow.

DeSantis was elected to Congress in 2012 where he served until he narrowly won the governorship in 2018, beating former Democratic Mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum 49.6% to 49.2%, according to Ballotpedia. The governor handily won reelection in 2022 by nearly 20 points, trouncing former Democratic Rep. Charlie Christ.

DeSantis’ political team did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

MARY LOU MASTERS

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ron DeSantis Is Living Rent-Free In Trump’s Head

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There are a lot of people who are confident that the contest for the Republican nomination for president is pretty much all over except for the formalities. President Trump, obviously, does not share that confidence.

There is no other explanation for the consistent and aggressive attacks from Team Trump (and Mr. Trump himself) directed at Governor DeSantis.

For example, twice in the last few weeks, the former president has taken to Truth Social to attack Governor DeSantis for his temerity (or “disloyalty” if you prefer) in seeking the nomination against his ostensible benefactor. Over the weekend, the former president’s media team collected and shared bad headlines from Governor DeSantis’s recent overseas trip.

No telling how many Republican primary voters there are in Japan or the United Kingdom.

The silliness has gone so far as having Mr. Trump complain about the State of Florida (to which he moved from the dumpster fire that is New York not 5 years ago).

In comparison, Team Trump rarely engages with the other candidates in the contest. They took no notice of Governor Hutchinson’s recent entry into the race. They have remained mostly silent with respect to Governor Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Tim Scott, and the always provocative Governor Christie.

Why is Governor DeSantis living all alone rent-free in Team Trump’s head?

Perhaps Mr. Trump has seen the recent polling that indicates that Governor DeSantis would do better than Mr. Trump in a general election.

Mr. Trump’s own polling team (Fabrizio Lee) recently released the results of a survey they did for the Wall Street Journal. That survey indicated that Governor DeSantis would defeat President Biden nationally (by 3%) while Mr. Trump would lose nationally by that same margin (which was also coincidentally the same margin by which Mr. Trump lost in in 2020).

In state-level polling done by Public Opinion Strategies, Mr. Trump trails Mr. Biden in Arizona by 1; Governor DeSantis leads Mr. Biden by 6. In Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump trails Mr. Biden by 4 points; Governor DeSantis leads Mr. Biden by 3 points.

In Nevada, Governor DeSantis leads Mr. Biden by 3 points; Mr. Trump trails him by 1. According to a survey done by Cygnal, Governor DeSantis runs 4 points better than Mr. Trump in Iowa.

If the polling is right — always a question — and Mr. Trump were the nominee and the election were now, Mr. Biden would win reelection with 319 electoral votes. If Governor DeSantis were the nominee, he would win the election with at least 286 electoral votes.

We are, of course, at the very beginning of this cycle and things can and will change. Team Trump knows that.  They also know that the notion that governor will perform better than the former president in a general election is a powerful narrative that needs to be strangled in its crib.

At the same time, one of the cardinal rules of life generally and politics specifically is to never punch down. You never attack anyone who is or should be beneath your attention. By focusing on Governor DeSantis, even more than on the incumbent president, Mr. Trump, wittingly or otherwise, is elevating the governor.

Presidents and former presidents should know better. If he wants to sail smoothly towards renomination, Mr. Trump needs to avoid creating a campaign vibe in which the two leading contenders are considered competitors within the same peer group.

Mr. Trump does better when he speaks to the issues that matter to people and the nation, avoids the airing of his personal grievances, and ignores potential competitors. There is, however, no telling how long he can maintain that discipline.

AUTHOR

MICHAEL MCKENNA

Michael McKenna was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House. He co-hosts a weekly podcast, The Unregulated.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

REP. BYRON DONALDS: There Is No Doubt Trump Is The Right Choice For America

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A recent visit to a pizza parlor in Ft. Myers reminded me why endorsing Donald Trump for president was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make.

The crowd there went wild, chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump!” This is what Paul McCartney must have felt traveling the world during Beatlemania. Americans don’t just love President Trump because he can be funny and entertaining. They have a bond with President Trump because of the results he delivered in the White House.

Voters miss low gas prices, global stability and a commander-in-chief that cared about their problems. The country is desperate for a change in leadership.

The choice will be clear and simple for voters come November 2024. Who did the job better as president of the United States, Donald J. Trump or Joseph R. Biden? Who do you trust to turn this country around? Voters will head to the polls with inflation, crime, the indoctrination of their kids, instability across the globe and the economy on their minds.

There is no doubt Trump is the right choice for America.

Not only is Trump the right choice over Biden, but his experience enables him to hit the ground running on day one. This is why I endorsed President Trump over Gov. Ron DeSantis. I’m looking for somebody who can come in on day one and get America back on track.

I know many other Republican voters want the same. Experience matters and no other Republican has the experience President Trump has.

Polling consistently shows that over seventy percent of Americans think our nation is on the wrong track and for good reason. Biden reversed all the successes of the Trump administration.

Our border has been opened to millions of unknown people. Roughly five times more illegal immigrants have been documented crossing our southern border under Biden than under President Trump. This includes a massive spike in terror watch list members entering our nation.

The open border is being taken advantage of by Mexican drug cartels that flood our nation with poison. The amount of fentanyl entering into our country has increased 900%. These deadly drugs are causing a historic amount of overdose deaths. Biden has blood on his hands.

Biden has demonized and targeted the energy industry. Under President Trump, America became a net exporter of oil for the first time, now we’re begging tyrants like Nicholas Maduro for oil.

President Trump brought stability to the world stage. Under Biden’s leadership, we’re now on the precipice of World War 3 in Ukraine. Meanwhile, China is negotiating with Brazil and other countries to subvert the dollar.

They’re becoming way more aggressive with Taiwan. China is doing this because they see weakness with the current commander in chief — Joe Biden.

It’s not just about the past. President Trump is looking ahead to the future with a series of bold policy proposals.

He’s already released a series of policy proposals under his Agenda47. These policies will rebuild the greatest economy in history, unleash energy dominance, secure our border, combat the war on drugs impacting countless families, restore safety, renew American strength and leadership, and defend law and liberty.

President Trump made America great once. He will make America great again. He has a proven record of doing it.

Byron Donalds represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

REP. BYRON DONALDS

Contributor

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DeSantis Unveils Bill To Thwart Disney’s Special Privileges

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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced legislation Monday to nullify Disney’s last-minute agreements intended to curb the governor’s newly-formed state control board, which was designed to oversee Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, the company’s special tax district.

The district had anticipated DeSantis’ signing of legislation that would have revoked the corporation’s self-governing privileges, and enacted a last-minute agreement to give Disney control of the district’s development rights and privileges. The governor announced a bill Monday that will nullify those agreements, as they were filled with legal issues and were not formed with proper notice, according to a press release.

“That’s not going to fly,” DeSantis said in the press conference. “We want to make sure that Disney lives under the same laws as everybody else.”

The agreement, formed on Feb. 8, ensures that the state control board receive consent from Disney before making any changes, undermining DeSantis’ legislation.

DeSantis signed the legislation on Feb. 27 revoking Disney of their self-governing privileges within the Reedy Creek Improvement District, citing that the corporation should abide by the same rules as the rest of the state. The legislation also established a state control board – Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board – to replace Reedy Creek.

“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” Disney said in a statement, WKMG reported.

The DeSantis-Disney feud began last year when the corporation came out against the governor’s Parental Rights in Education Bill for being discriminatory, and called for the law’s repeal. CEO Bob Iger slammed the governor’s actions as “anti-business” and “anti-Florida.”

The state control board will meet on Wednesday to introduce initiatives to hold Disney accountable, DeSantis told Good Morning Orlando’s Simon Conway.

Disney did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

MARY LOU MASTERS

Contributor.

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DeSantis Announces Next Moves In Fight With Disney

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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his plan Thursday to void the last-second legal agreement signed by Disney to maintain its self-governance and special privileges in the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

DeSantis spoke April 6 at Hillsdale College, a conservative school in Michigan, about his next move in Florida’s ongoing battle with Disney.

“They are not superior to the people of Florida. And so come hell or high water, we’re going to make sure that policy of Florida carries the day,” DeSantis said, according to Reuters.

“We’re going to look at things like taxes on hotels, we’re going to look at things like tolls on the roads, we’re going to look at things like developing some of the property that the district owns,” DeSantis continued.

Earlier in the day, DeSantis hinted at next moves at a breakfast with the Midland County Republican Party of Michigan, Politico reported. Disney “tried to pull a fast one on the way out the door,” he said. “That story’s not over yet. Buckle up. There’s more coming down the pike.”

Disney reportedly signed legal agreements with the Reedy Creek Special Improvement District in February to preserve its special benefits as DeSantis’ legislation to abolish the special district was making its way through Florida’s legislature. The legislation replaced the Reedy Creek district with a new governance body and revoked Disney’s special privileges.

Disney CEO Bob Iger called DeSantis legislation “anti-business” and “anti-Florida” during the company’s annual shareholder meeting Monday. The company’s feud with DeSantis began when Disney came out against his legislation restricting the teaching of gender ideology and sexuality from kindergarten through third grade.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Reporter.

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Trump Holds Massive Lead Over Biden In Hypothetical 2024 Matchup

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Former President Donald Trump holds a massive lead over President Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 head-to-head matchup, according to a recent poll.

Trump is winning against Biden 47% to 41%, respectively, in a 2024 presidential rematch among registered voters, according to a Premise poll. The poll indicates a swing of 8 percentage points towards the former president, as a February Premise poll had Trump down 42% to 44% against Biden.

The majority of Republicans and Democrats voted for their respective candidate, with 87% of GOP voters going for Trump and 75% of Democrats picking Biden. Among Independents, 39% backed Trump, and only 22% went for Biden.

Nearly half of the Hispanic/Latino voters tapped Trump at 49%, and the majority of black voters backed Biden at 61%.

The same poll indicates that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet entered the race but is widely expected to do so, would also win in a hypothetical matchup with the president, but only by 1 percentage point.

Trump is the clear favorite in a crowded GOP primary field, leading DeSantis 56% to 25%, according to the poll. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz follows the two front-runners with 5%, respectively, and former Vice President Mike Pence is just behind them at 4%.

The Real Clear Politics (RCP) average for a general election between the current and former president indicates that Biden has a 1.2 percentage point lead from Jan. 27 – Mar. 13.

Trump is down by 3 percentage points against Biden in a general election face off, according to a Mar. 21 Morning Consult poll. Biden leads Trump 49% to 45% in a head-to-head matchup among registered voters, according to a Mar. 15 Quinnipiac poll. The former president is up 4 percentage points against Biden in a 2024 rematch, according to a Feb. 28 Emerson poll.

The Premise poll surveyed 1,509 registered voters over the course of Mar. 16 – 21.

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MARY LOU MASTERS

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

DeSantis Breaks Silence On Potential Trump Indictment

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Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis broke his silence Monday about former President Donald Trump’s possible indictment.

Trump announced Saturday he expects to be arrested Tuesday by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office, which is led by Alvin Bragg. The potential indictment relates to a years-long investigation into whether Trump paid hush money to former porn star actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent $130,000 to Daniels so she would not disclose her alleged affair. Cohen claims Trump then reimbursed him for the payments, with authorities investigating whether Trump forged business records to hide the alleged payout.

DeSantis broke his silence on the issue Monday.

“The Manhattan District Attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor and so he like, other Soros funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis said.

“He has downgraded over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors, he says he doesn’t even want to have jail time for the vast majorities of crimes,” DeSantis said, adding he doesn’t know “what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence” but that “if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office.” 

“I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” he continued, before again turning his attention to Soros’ involvement in helping elect liberal prosecutors.

“These Soros district attorneys are a menace to society,” he continued, adding he won’t be “getting involved” in the “political spectacle” and will be focusing on his own state.

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BRIANNA LYMAN

News and commentary writer. Follow Brianna on Twitter.

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Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation Ending The ‘Corporate Kingdom’ Of Walt Disney World

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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday ending the self-governing status and special privileges provided to Walt Disney World through the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

DeSantis made the announcement during a press conference in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The legislation, titled HB 9-B, ends Disney’s self-governing status, establishes a new state-controlled district and imposes a five-member state control board, which is appointed by the governor. The board will also be confirmed by the state Senate.

“Allowing a corporation to control its own government is bad policy, especially when the corporation makes decisions that impact an entire region,” DeSantis said in a statement.

Here Is What The Legislation Does Specifically:

  • ENDS Disney’s self-governing status.
  • ENDS Disney’s exemption from the Florida Building Code and Florida Fire Prevention Code.
  • ENDS Disney’s exemption from state regulatory reviews and approvals.
  • ENDS Disney’s secrecy by ensuring transparency.
  • ENSURES that Disney will pay its fair share of taxes.
  • PREVENTS leftist local governments from using the situation to raise local taxes.
  • IMPOSES Florida law so that Disney is no longer given preferential treatment.
  • ENSURES that Disney’s municipal debt will be paid by Disney, not Florida taxpayers.

WATCH: 

“This legislation ends Disney’s self-governing status, makes Disney live under the same laws as everybody else, and ensures that Disney pays its debts and fair share of taxes,” DeSantis added.

The bill is 189 pages and would also make it so that the new representatives of the committee cannot have any previous relationship with Disney within the past three years.

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HENRY RODGERS

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DeSantis Announces Plan To End ‘Woke Banking’ In Florida

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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced proposed legislation Monday designed to end “ESG woke banking” in the state, slamming ESG as an “elite-driven phenomenon” that seeks to impose policies which would otherwise “never win favor” with the public.

ESG, or environmental, social, and governance standards, are a “mechanism to inject political ideology into investment decisions, corporate governance, and really just the everyday economy,” DeSantis said during the press conference. His plan aims to eliminate its influence in the state by withdrawing government support from banks that use it and creating protections for citizens.

DeSantis highlighted ways he believes the standards negatively impact the United States and its citizens, from increasing the country’s dependence on China to violating company’s duties to their shareholders and undermining the democratic process.

“This is a distortion of a government by and for the people,” DeSantis said. “They are not accountable to you.”

Part of DeSantis’ proposal would put into statute a resolution he issued last August banning state pensions from considering ESG.

The resolution directed Florida’s fund managers to “to invest state funds in a manner that prioritizes the highest return on investment for Florida’s taxpayers and retirees” without regard to ESG.

The proposal would also create protections for Florida citizens against discrimination by big financial institutions for their “religious, political, or social beliefs.”

DeSantis argued the standards often target “disfavored” groups, such as Second Amendment advocates and companies like The GEO Group, a Florida-based private corrections company that holds a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Brandon Wexler, owner of Wex Gunworks, spoke during the press conference on his experience having his accounts shut down by Wells Fargo after banking with the company for 25 years.

Wexler said he received a letter stating the company does not lend to “certain types of industries.”

DeSantis’ proposed legislation will also prohibit financial institutions from using “Social Credit Scores” in banking and lending decisions, ban the housing of state or local funds in institutions that promote ESG and ensure ESG is not used in investment decisions or issuing bonds at the state and local level. Additionally, it will direct the Attorney General and Commissioner of Financial Regulation “to enforce these provisions to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Florida, as usual, is leading the charge against this,” DeSantis said.

Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner also joined the press conference.

“The goal of corporate activism seen in environmental, social, and governance investing (ESG) is to bypass democracy and transform capitalism to serve an ideological agenda,” said Renner in a statement. “We will not allow these martini millionaires to push unsafe and unsound investment practices that silence debate in the political process, weaken investment strategies for Florida retirees, and discriminate against any individual’s beliefs. I am proud to stand with Governor DeSantis and Senate President Passidomo to put taxpayers, investors, and Florida retirees first.”

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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Trump Demolished The GOP Status Quo. Some 2024 Contenders Want To Bring It Back

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After former President Donald Trump formally launched his 2024 presidential run in November, a favorite parlor game of the chattering class has been to guess the identity of his first formally announced challenger for the Republican nomination. This week answered that question: Nikki Haley. The former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is set to declare her candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 15. (N.B. deeply unpopular former national security adviser John Bolton made an offhand remark to a British television station last month that he would also run, but since then has merely intimated he is considering such a bid.)

Haley’s announcement will likely open up the floodgates for additional Trump challengers. Just as Haley had barely made an effort of late to contain her 2024 presidential ambitions, so too might we expect announcements to soon follow from other not-so-thinly-veiled aspirants, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and perhaps former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Later this spring or early summer, numerous other candidates are poised to also enter the fray: chief among them Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and perhaps also Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, 2016 GOP presidential primary runner-up Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has also been teasing a possible presidential run, despite his rather dubious credentials.

All of this will be sorted out in due time — by June or July of this year, at the latest. And as we approach that time, the key question facing the Right, and the Republican Party that is the Right’s natural partisan vehicle, is whether it will seize upon the Trump phenomenon and move forward, or instead move backward to the pre-2016 GOP status quo ante. Put another way: Was “Trumpism” a one-time flash in the pan based around an eponymous larger than-life personality and universal celebrity status, or was it a substantive wake-up call for the GOP to ditch its outmoded bromides and sober up on issues pertaining (especially) to trade, immigration, and foreign policy?

There is at least some reason for optimism that the latter formulation is correct.

In the current way-too-early 2024 polling for the presidential nomination, DeSantis consistently polls by far the best of any non-Trump alternative. DeSantis also happens to embody the tenets and overall ethos of the more nationalist- and populist-infused “New Right” movement better than almost any other current elected official in America. He is a fiery culture warrior who dives headfirst into the fight against woke-ism, with a clear appreciation of the governing imperatives to wield power in the service of good political order and to recapture institutions previously lost to woke-ism. His well publicized fight last year against The Walt Disney Company was straight out of the “New Right” playbook: Wield political power to punish a woke corporation pushing insidious gender ideology and to protect parental rights and the innocence of children.

More recently, DeSantis claimed a huge scalp from the College Board when it revised its AP African American Studies curriculum after the Florida governor objected to the initial course framework’s pervasive indoctrinatory leftism, including its suffusion of critical race theory pablum. His latest much-publicized moves with the New College of Florida’s board of trustees, furthermore, perfectly demonstrates how one can prudentially wield power to recapture and reorient woke-addled institutions. Even on his signature issue, COVID-19, DeSantis did not reflexively defer to private-sector actors, as many libertarians or right-liberals might have; rather, he properly wielded power to preclude private-sector vaccine mandates, demonstrating a recognition of the manner in which professional managerial class elites weaponized such mandates against dissenting “deplorables.”

President Trump, along with some of his loudest social media supporters, have recently taken to smearing DeSantis as a clone of former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), who perfectly personifies the older chamber of commerce-friendly GOP. That is laughable; Ryan, now a distinguished visiting fellow at the neoliberal American Enterprise Institute, would object to most, perhaps all, of DeSantis’ moves mentioned above.

On the other hand, there are a number of possible 2024 candidates who do embody the failures of the pre-2016 GOP status quo ante.

The foreign policy-centric Pompeo, for instance, has recently sounded a lot like Bush-era Donald Rumsfeld when he has opined on the Russo-Ukrainian war, defining America’s purported national interest at a cartoonishly high level of abstraction and urging for ever-more taxpayer-funded weapons shipments. Haley, for her part, gives off the strong impression of a “market can do no wrong”-style laissez faire fundamentalist, denigrating “hyphenated capitalism” — such as Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) proposal for “common good capitalism” — and hilariously tweeting in March 2020, on the precipice of the COVID-19 lockdowns, that “as we are dealing with changes in our economy, tax cuts are always a good idea.” Hogan and Suarez, for their part, both encapsulate the Republican National Committee’s infamous advice found in its post-2012 presidential election “autopsy”: namely, to soften on immigration, avoid those icky “culture war” issues and focus on economic issues more palatable for suburbia. Trump’s win four years later single-handedly proved the myopia of such thinking.

Assuming most of these likely 2024 contenders do indeed make the plunge, Republican primary voters will face a big decision. Let’s hope they choose to move forward, not backward — in terms of repeating either discredited public policy or, as the case may be, repeating sullied candidates.

To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

JOSH HAMMER

Contributor

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