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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential marketing campaign reboot has began with a bang.
Workforce DeSantis plans to “let Ron be Ron,” to allow them to “expose” voters to extra DeSantis (their wording, not mine).
Nice. Let the exposing start—this time with double the fascism! First, The New York Instances revealed Sunday that the weirdly homoerotic anti-LGBTQ+ video tweeted out earlier this month by the DeSantis campaign was truly made in-house by a DeSantis aide. The marketing campaign then enlisted an outdoor supporter (who later deleted the unique tweet) to ship it out on Twitter.
Additionally Sunday, a DeSantis staffer retweeted an anti-Trump, pro-DeSantis video that actually morphed the Florida State flag right into a Nazi emblem with DeSantis’ head superimposed on it.
The brand new Nazi video is unusually paying homage to the now notorious anti-LGBTQ+ advert.
Marketing campaign Motion
Thematically, the video equally options Trump’s political failures on the fitting—even utilizing a few of the identical photographs of Trump holding up a Satisfaction flag. By way of pacing, the video additionally makes use of fast cuts, interspersing photographs of DeSantis right into a sequence of weird sequences, similar to the anti-LGBTQ+ video did. But within the last eight seconds, the advert almost grinds to a halt as the middle circle of Florida’s state flag transforms right into a “sunwheel“—an historic European image appropriated by the Nazis and now embraced by white supremacists—whereas troops march towards the Nazi image centered on the display screen. DeSantis seems on the wheel for a number of seconds earlier than fading away.
Drink that in for a second: Troops marching towards the solar, depicted as Nazi memorabilia with DeSantis’ mug in the course of all of it. It is rather a lot to contemplate.
The ultimate similarity is the video has now been pulled down from the unique account after it was retweeted by a member of Workforce DeSantis.
In mid-July, I documented the GOP donor migration away from DeSantis, beginning with a closing of wallets within the spring and escalating to sheer panic among the many Republican donor class as they tried to find a legit Trump different amid the DeSantis collapse. Initially, the donors started questioning his attraction in a normal election; then they started questioning his skill to even get the job completed within the main.
Lots of these donors began eyeing Sen. Tim Scott, who simply made a $40 million advert purchase in Iowa, New Hampshire, and his dwelling state of South Carolina.
What’s rising is a worst-case situation for each DeSantis and anti-Trump Republicans: DeSantis did not consolidate the anti-Trump and alternative-curious conservatives right into a formidable coalition, giving life to a number of different 2024 hopefuls who’re all however guaranteeing Trump’s nomination.
And who can blame them? DeSantis has confirmed to be a spectacularly unhealthy candidate. In Iowa, for example, Scott has damaged into double-digit help at 11%, trailing DeSantis by only a handful of factors, in accordance with the most recent Fox Enterprise ballot. Trump led the survey at 46%.
In South Carolina, the identical outfit put former U.N. Ambassador and Palmetto State Gov. Nikki Haley one level forward of DeSantis, 14% to 13% with Scott respiratory down his neck at 10%. Trump led the ballot at 48%.
And in New Hampshire, DeSantis is maxing out at roughly 15% or beneath in three of the 4 July polls within the FiveThirtyEight mixture, whereas Trump is both close to or above 40% in every ballot.
If the theoretical predominant challenger to Trump doesn’t win any one of many first a number of states within the GOP’s winner-takes-all main, when precisely does he plan to start out difficult the frontrunner?
Nationally, Civiqs monitoring tells the identical story of DeSantis’ flailing marketing campaign. One other week, one other 1-point drop to 33% favorable, 56% unfavorable amongst registered voters. What’s fascinating is that DeSantis is not simply sagging with independents (32% – 55%), he is additionally dropping altitude with Republican voters. Since early July, DeSantis’ favorability fee amongst Republicans has dropped from 74% to 70%. Stable.
The DeSantis marketing campaign was right in its assertion that with out a shakeup, it was headed for catastrophe. However as an alternative of recalibrating to deal with donor fears that DeSantis had tacked to this point proper he would not be aggressive in a normal election, they doubled down and went full fascist.
Within the two months since DeSantis introduced his presidential bid, he is gone from being ‘Trump with out the luggage’ to ‘Not Trump, with the luggage’ to ‘Not Trump, double the luggage.’ It is a formidable evolution from a 2024 candidacy filled with hope to easily nope.
Solely a marketing campaign demonstrating that kind of aptitude might devise a shakeup that landed on, “Ya know what the voters really want? Extra Ron.”