According to this Times article by DeSantis beat writer Nicholas Nehamas, Ron DeSantis knows he’s not going to be the GOP’s 2024 nominee and is looking for an exit that preserves his 2028 prospects:
After a humbling loss in Iowa, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is starting to signal that he is building an off-ramp from the race for the Republican presidential nomination, a seeming acknowledgment of his dim prospects of defeating Donald J. Trump given his low poll numbers in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
So far this week, Mr. DeSantis has cast his eyes forward to 2028 with anecdotes about Trump supporters saying they would vote for him next time around if he runs again in four years. He has conceded that Mr. Trump’s thumping victory in Iowa on Monday made for a “good showing in terms of him winning the nomination.” And he has openly admitted that he believes he made a strategic mistake by icing out the traditional media earlier in the campaign.
It all amounted to a kind of frankness that Mr. DeSantis has not always shown in his public comments about the nominating contest — and a marked change in tone for a candidate who spent most of last year brashly promising he would win Iowa, which he lost by 30 points.
With any luck, the back half of DeSantis’s governorship won’t go as smoothly as the first now that statehouse toadies have no immediate motivation to cower and suck up. There’s also reason to hope that wingnut donors who got torched by Ron in 2024 remember how wantonly he squandered their millions and keep their wallets shut in 2028.
Most of all, I hope Trump settles the heir apparent question once and for all this year by getting clobbered by Joe Biden. (Again.) Maybe such a glorious event could finally prompt Republicans to eschew candidates with Trump loser stink on them. That group definitely includes The Beast’s imitator Ron DeSantis.
Open thread.
PS: I will probably not be able to resist dancing on DeSantis’s political grave for a few more weeks. Don’t feel constrained by the topic of the post — talk about whatever!