Don’t You Dare Call It a Smear

Is Ron DeSantis autistic? Politico can’t possibly say. But the outlet can say that many other people are saying it. Who? Primarily allies of the governor’s primary opponent in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump.

The rumor Politico’s Michael Shaffer broadcast and boosted is directly attributed to former Trump White House adviser and convicted felon Steve Bannon, but other Trump-adjacent hatchet men like Roger Stone have contributed to this whisper campaign. Indeed, Shaffer observes that the claim DeSantis is somewhere on the spectrum has been “echoed across the MAGA ecosystem.”