Former president Donald Trump unleashed a decontextualized volley of attacks at Ron DeSantis’s record on Wednesday, casting Florida’s governor as “average,” but by far the best “in one category, Public Relations.”
While the former president’s wide-ranging attacks recently posted on Truth Social are often ostensibly correct, they are also often misleading.
Trump cited recent voting numbers to suggest that he’s more popular than DeSantis in Florida, but those figures don’t tell the whole story.
“Let me explain the facts,” said Trump. “He is, for a Republican, an average Governor, he got 1.2 million less Votes in Florida than me.”
On its face, this number is roughly true. Trump got about one million more votes in the 2020 presidential election compared to DeSantis’s total votes in the 2022 midterms. However, Trump’s margin was less than 5 points while DeSantis’s margin was much larger, nearing 20 points in a state very recently considered purple. Trump was also running in a presidential year, as compared to DeSantis, who was running in a midterm, albeit one that had higher turnout than usual.
“He fought for massive cuts in Social Security and Medicare, and wanted Social Security minimum age to be raised to 70-years-old, or more,” continued Trump. “He is a disciple of Paul D. Ryan, and did whatever Ryan told him to do.”
The former president is correct that DeSantis aligned himself with the former House speaker on entitlement reform during his time as a representative. However, DeSantis has since reversed his position, and neither the governor nor Trump are at present willing to tackling the coming entitlement crisis.
Trump then turned to DeSantis’s record as Florida governor, focusing much of it on the Covid response that elevated DeSantis to celebrity status among conservatives.
“Florida has been successful for many years, long before I put Ron there—It’s amazing what Ocean & Sunshine will do! Surprise, Ron was a big Lockdown Governor on the China Virus, sealing all beaches and everything else for an extended period of time, was Third Worst in the Nation for COVID-19 Deaths (losing 86,294 People), Third Worst for Total # of Cases, at 7,516,906. Other Republican Governors did MUCH BETTER than Ron and, because I allowed them this ‘freedom,’ never closed their States. Remember, I left that decision up to the Governors!” said Trump. “For COVID Death Rates Per State, Ron, as Governor of Florida, did worse than New York.”
It’s true that an estimated 86,850 Floridians have lost their lives to Covid as of March 23, with Florida placing third behind California and Texas in both lives lost and total cases. However, Florida is also the third most populous state. New York comes in fourth, just behind Florida, in cases and deaths, which tracks with it being the fourth most populous state. Compared to these three other states, Florida was harder hit when accounting for population, but it also has a greater share of residents that are over 65 years old, ranking second in the U.S. according to the Population Reference Bureau. A number of other states were harder hit than Florida when adjusting for population.
Faced with a population at a greater risk and a Trump administration urging diligence, DeSantis indeed instituted a lockdown in Florida. This was the norm across the United States, only bucked by seven Republican states. The Florida lockdown lasted roughly one month and was shorter than a number of other states.
The former president then turned his attention to Florida’s position on a number of rankings of U.S. states.
“In Education, Florida ranks among the worst in the Country and on crime statistics, Florida ranked Third Worst in Murder, Third Worst in Rape, and Third Worst in Aggravated Assault. For 2022, Jacksonville was ranked as one of the Top 25 Major Crime Cities in the Country, with Tampa and Orlando not doing much better…On Education, Florida ranks #39 in Health & Safety in the Country, #50 in Affordability, and #30 in Education & Childcare, HARDLY GREATNESS THERE!” said the former president.
The president’s characterization on education appears to be wrong or at least contested by other groups. Florida is ranked 3 by U.S. News in its best states for education and No. 1 on choice for parents by the Parent Power Index. It is No. 3 for K-12 achievement, according to a 2021 report.
While all states saw test scores drop during the pandemic, DeSantis’s concerted effort to keep schools open and avoid remote-schooling saw Florida rise in the rankings as other states declined in a steeper fashion. DeSantis particularly touted Florida ranking No. 3 in the nation in fourth grade reading and No. 4 in fourth grade mathematics.
On crime, Trump was correct that Florida’s murder capital, Jacksonville, breaks into the top 25 most crime-ridden cities. Trump is again correct that Florida features in several crime rankings as the third worst state, but this figure tracks with the state’s population. The crime rate in Florida does appear to have fallen in recent decades, though crime statistics are notoriously unreliable.
Finally, on affordability, it is true that rents in the state, especially in its most popular cities, are soaring, according to news reports. However, the state is also seeing huge in-migration numbers, which Trump did not mention. Florida’s population increased by 1.9 percent to 22,244,823 between 2021 and 2022, surpassing Idaho, the previous year’s fastest-growing state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While WalletHub does place Florida at No. 50 on affordability in in its ranking of best states to raise a family, it rates the state No. 9 on affordability in its ranking of best states to retire in. U.S. News and World Report has Florida at No. 38 on affordability overall, with the state ranking No. 36 on cost of living and No. 41 on housing affordability.