Desantis & Trump: Ron DeSantis’s First Commander-in-Chief Test

Ron DeSantis has a Donald Trump problem. How he solves it — if he can — will be the first test of an important aspect of presidential character.

Let us assume — as is widely assumed, but as yet unannounced — that DeSantis would like to run for president in 2024. Many across the Republican spectrum would like to see him do so. The trick is that DeSantis needs to wrest the Republican nomination away from Trump, either by defeating him or, better still, convincing him not to run. Harder still, he needs to do so in a way that keeps Trump’s most passionate supporters behind him come that November. It would be a Pyrrhic victory to defeat Trump in the way that Napoleon captured Moscow in 1812, presiding over the burned-out shell of a city surrounded by hundreds of miles of scorched earth in the onset of winter.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Ron DeSantis has a Donald Trump problem. How he solves it — if he can — will be the first test of an important aspect of presidential character.

Let us assume — as is widely assumed, but as yet unannounced — that DeSantis would like to run for president in 2024. Many across the Republican spectrum would like to see him do so. The trick is that DeSantis needs to wrest the Republican nomination away from Trump, either by defeating him or, better still, convincing him not to run. Harder still, he needs to do so in a way that keeps Trump’s most passionate supporters behind him come that November. It would be a Pyrrhic victory to defeat Trump in the way that Napoleon captured Moscow in 1812, presiding over the burned-out shell of a city surrounded by hundreds of miles of scorched earth in the onset of winter.