Trump vs. Desantis

Published: 08/30/23 12.14 ET

If Trump wins the GOP primary, would the DeSantis supporters vote for him in the general election? What about Trump supporters if DeSantis is the primary winner? I think the answer to both these questions is Yes, but it doesn't look that way at the moment, with the ongoing bitter feuds between the two factions on Twitter. DeSantis is not doing well in the polls. He was doing a lot better before he announced his candidacy. Things have gotten steadily worse since then. He didn't create any sparks during campaigning so far, and he was relatively quiet in the first debate. He didn't do badly (apart from the Trump pardon question), but it felt like he didn't do enough. He definitely did not improve his poll standing with his debate performance.

It's almost like DeSantis is biding his time, waiting for Trump to be sidelined by law suits. That brings us to the next possibility: if Trump is taken out by litigation, would the Trump supporters vote for the GOP nominee in the general election?

This sounds plausible. If GOP dumps Trump, his supporters will likely dump GOP. But if they don't, would President DeSantis be all that much better than President Biden? I am not so sure anymore. He did some good things as Florida governor, but the Trump supporters point out that his anti-woke image is a work of fiction. He also seems to depend on a small number of big donors rather than a large number of small donors. He has "globalist masters."

GOP is probably better off sticking with Trump to the bitter end. The Trump base is huge. Most of the vocal DeSantis supporters seem to be media pundits. Media people never really liked Trump - they didn't support Trump before he won. (Remember the National Review editorial "Against Trump"?) Some of them briefly came to his side, but it seems they are all back to their original position now.