it's official(?)

As of right now, the headlines are a bit confusing and jumbled, but Ron DeSantis appears finally to have decided to throw his hat in the ring and run for president.

Headline:

DeSantis Officially Declaring Presidential Run During Event With Elon Musk

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is officially entering the 2024 presidential race this week during a special event with Twitter owner Elon Musk.

The conversation between DeSantis and Musk will take place on Twitter at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. The conversation will be moderated by Republican donor David Sacks, who is supporter of DeSantis and a close ally of Musk.

The Daily Wire can confirm that the reports are accurate.

Musk seemingly confirmed the report on the platform by retweeting a Fox News reporter who shared the news.

A source close to Musk told NBC News that Musk believes that former President Donald Trump is not capable of winning the White House in 2024 and that DeSantis is. “He’s interested in the future, and he’s interested in winning again,” the person said.

Good for ol' Uncle Ron. He's still not enough of a known quantity outside of Florida's state borders, as the polls keep showing, but by officially declaring his intention to run, DeSantis will be able to raise funds and build a campaign war chest, which will definitely help with marketing. DeSantis is young and flexible enough to use "new" media to his advantage; by platforming himself on Twitter, which Trump has largely abandoned in favor of his own Truth Social, DeSantis gives himself a much higher bully pulpit to stand on. I expect poll numbers to start to shift in DeSantis's favor, but a lot depends on how he decides to fight Trump. 

This article suggests that DeSantis is going to hammer Trump for his "vaccine" response: Trump never mandated the use of the jab, but he's been bizarrely proud of his "Warp Speed" response to getting the jab developed in record time. To some, this makes Trump appear to be out of touch with his base, who all universally hate the jab. Trump also elevated Anthony Fauci to his position as chief advisor with regard to COVID response. Fauci has served under several presidential administrations, both Republican and Democrat, but considering how radioactive the man has become, Fauci's position in the Trump administration deepens the narrative that Trump has no clue how to pick people for his inner circle. Personally, I agree these are Trumpian mistakes, and DeSantis is right to go after Trump for having made them. Trump could easily judo-flip this by humbly admitting, during a debate, to having made mistakes, to having been wrong. But we all know enough about Trump's character, at this point, to realize that Trump sails the political seas on a ship made entirely of ego, so no humble admission of error will be forthcoming. Then again, Trump might surprise me.

I need to focus more on what DeSantis's specific positions actually are. In a sense, we're all going to learn about his major campaign themes pretty soon. I know that DeSantis can be a pit bull with the press, just as Trump has been. I also know that DeSantis has touted Florida as "the place where woke goes to die," which is only a good thing in my book. DeSantis has a lot of priorities that I can get behind, including fiscal conservatism, and in the coming months, we're all going to learn together what separates him from Trump, but I still want to do my own research and draw my own conclusions.