Ron vs. Don continues!
Ending months of speculation, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his candidacy for president on Wednesday, setting off a seismic clash with former President Donald Trump for GOP supremacy.
“Well, I’m running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” DeSantis, 44, told billionaire Elon Musk during an audio-only Twitter Spaces event, hours after filing documents with Federal Election Commission.
“Governance is not entertainment,” DeSantis said, clearly waving at Trump. “It’s not about branding or virtue signalling. It’s about delivering results, and our results in Florida are second to none.”
The governor also declared, speaking of Trump’s election, “If you nominate me, you can set your clock to January 20, 2025, at noon – because on the west side of the Capitol, I will take my oath of office as the 47th president of the United States.” No excuses – I’ll get the job done.”
DeSantis’ scheduled 6 p.m. appearance with Musk was delayed for more than 20 minutes as a flood of listeners caused a link outage. He eventually showed up for over an hour answering questions from conservative figures including activist Chris Rufo and Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
![Ron DeSantis](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/2023-05-16T160023Z_1567836033_RC2RZ0A00D70_RTRMADP_3_USA-ELECTION-DESANTIS-ABORTION.jpg?w=1024)
Trump responded with a diatribe of comments on his own Truth Social network, including a meme of a rocket ship being blown up on launch – used to mock both Musk and the governor – and a hard-to-follow fictional dialogue with North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un.
“Rob, my red button is bigger, better, stronger and works (TRUE!), yours don’t! (From my conversation with Kim Jung Un from North Korea, who will soon be my friend!), the former president wrote.
Trump added: “[South Carolina Sen.] Tim Scott’s presidential run, even with a broken microphone (don’t pay the contractor, Tim!), was by far the best presidential run of the week. Robs was a disaster!”
DeSantis has sought to position himself as an advocate for many of the same policies as Trump without the theatrics, even at one point usurping his commitment to the border wall during a Twitter discussion, saying “We will close the border, build a border wall and hold the drug cartels accountable.”
“Listen, we know our country is going in the wrong direction. We see it with our own eyes and feel it in our bones,” said the graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School in his first public comment as a candidate.
“Our southern border has collapsed, drugs are pouring into the country, our cities are hollowed out by rising crime. The federal government makes it harder for the average family to make ends meet and achieve and maintain a middle-class lifestyle, and our president lacks vigor and flies in the face of our nation’s challenges and takes guidance from the awakened crowd.”
DeSantis is the father of three young children, ages 2 to 5, and is widely seen as Trump’s main rival for the Republican nomination. Dozens of state legislators in Iowa and New Hampshire who voted early on in the vote endorsed it preemptively this month.
The governor’s wife, Casey, 42, is a charming former local TV presenter and key adviser.
He describes himself as having working-class roots before jumping into the Ivy League by playing college baseball. His mother was a nurse, and his father installed Nielsen television sets around Orlando and Tampa.
Most national polls show DeSantis trailing Trump by double digits, but supporters note that the contest is in its early stages and that Trump is mired in legal uncertainty.
President Biden – 36 years older than DeSantis – is already the oldest president in history at 80, and would have been 86 if he had completed his second term. Trump, who is 76, would have been 82 when he left office.
![Elon Musk](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Election_2024_DeSantis_34515-c5498.jpg?w=1024)
While DeSantis supporters expect a shock from his announcement, he still faces the daunting task of replacing Trump as party leader.
After narrowly defeating Democratic challenger Andrew Gillum in his 2018 gubernatorial race, DeSantis gained national notoriety for his unapologetic conservatism and feisty style.
He emerged as the general of the vocal culture battlefield, vowing to fight “awake” intrusions into public life and passing laws on everything from abortion to teaching gender identity in schools.
Touting Florida as an “oasis of freedom” at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, DeSantis has taken a softer stance on coronavirus restrictions and vaccination mandates.
He said these decisions sparked an ongoing demographic and economic boom as blue state emigrants fled to the Sunshine State.
![Donald Trump](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/GettyImages-488226322.jpg?w=1024)
DeSantis served nearly six years in the House of Representatives after deployments to Iraq and Guantanamo Bay – and after winning a second four-year term as governor in November, he emerged as Trump’s likely main competitor.
Trump attacked DeSantis as an establishment Republican and attacked him again Wednesday using the moniker “DeSantimonious.”
“I would like to personally congratulate Rob DeSanctimonious on finally announcing that he will be running for president of the United States,” Trump wrote.
“I hope he will fully experience being attacked by Marxists, communists and radical left-wing lunatics from our country, without whom he will never know the kind of work he does. These Lowlifes & Misfits are much worse than the leaders of hostile foreign countries. They must be beaten solidly to make AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump recently barged in on the governor over what the former president saw as a condescending moral tone over his alleged tryst with porn star Stormy Daniels.
![Republican candidate for Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis takes the stage during a late-night election party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AFP_33FK6GZ-1.jpg?w=1024)
Some polls showed DeSantis and Trump essentially tied earlier this year, but RealClearPolitics poll average shows Trump built a big lead – now at 34.4% – after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in late March charged him with a felony on a novel business records theory involving silent cash payments to Daniels and another woman in 2016. Trump said this was part of a “witch hunt,” which he says involves an ongoing investigation into the handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Trump faces a March 2024 tentative trial date midway through the GOP primaries.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found Trump leading the nation’s Republicans with 56%, followed by DeSantis with 25% and former Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) with 3%.
However, DeSantis touted his 20-point humiliation of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist in November as evidence of his electoral power and routinely undermines the Republican Party’s “loser culture”.
![Governor-elect Ron DeSantis of Florida talks with President Donald Trump during a meeting with the newly elected governors in the White House Cabinet.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Election_2024_DeSantis_41937-fb49c.jpg?w=1024)
When asked about the Democratic attacks, DeSantis said in a webcast hosted by Musk that claims he has banned books in schools are a “hoax” and that authorities have only authorized parents to do so if the material is not age-appropriate.
“The whole book ban thing is a hoax. Not a single book was banned in the state of Florida. You can buy or use any book,” he said. “What we’ve done is allow parents to review the curriculum to know what books are used in school, and then make sure those books are up to state standards and our age and developmentally appropriate.”
He also denied the ban on teaching African American history, saying that he actually sought to limit the labeling of children as “persecutors or oppressed based on their race” while allowing teaching about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement.
![Backyard signs promoting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2024, funded by super PAC to promote DeSantis for president.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Election_2024_Iowa_DeSantis_68818-12af7.jpg?w=1024)
“In the same bill that banned critical race theory, we required thorough teaching about racial discrimination that has occurred throughout American history, and the standards of Florida history require teaching all of these subjects – from slavery to reconstruction and segregation – all of that,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also mocked the NAACP for its recent travel warning against visiting his state.
“The head of the NAACP lives in Florida, and many of their board members posted on social media during my vacation in Florida, where they seem to be having a great time,” he said.
Biden announced some Democratic proverbs a few weeks ago at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he highlighted the governor’s conflict with Disney over the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that restricts discussion of sexuality and gender identity in schools. This policy initially only applied until third grade before it became extended last month include middle and high schools.
“I had a lot of Ron DeSantis jokes prepared, but Mickey Mouse beat him, he got there first,” Biden said at the gala, adding, “After being re-elected governor, he was asked if he had a mandate. He said, “Hell no, I’m straight.”
Floridian is expected to garner support from key party figures who withheld their support until he officially enters the race, and the pro-DeSantis super PAC boasts a number of alumni from the previous Trump campaign and administration, such as spokesman Steve Cortes and former official Ken Cuccinelli’s Department of Homeland Security.
Although DeSantis has strong support in the state legislature, Trump boasts the support of a majority of Florida’s House of Representatives delegation in Washington. De Santis on Wednesday signed a state law waiving the requirement that would have forced him to resign as governor in order to run for president.