Politico Plays Up Trump vs. DeSantis Battle for GOP Nomination

CLAY: I think it’s going to be a reality. I believe that Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, is going to be running against Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination on behalf of the Republican Party. Politico has a story that went up early this morning that Ron DeSantis is not asking for Donald Trump’s endorsement in the state of Florida. “According to four people…” I’m reading from Politico.

“According to four people connected to the governor and former president, DeSantis has not asked Trump for a formal endorsement and isn’t planning to. It’s a clear sign that DeSantis, who more than four years ago was a little-known congressman from northeast Florida, has risen high in the GOP stratosphere,” and they are expecting now that there is going to be… There’s a New Yorker article. We talked about it that hinted at it. It had quotes from Trump.

I think that we are headed for a major battle between DeSantis and Trump in 2023 as we run into the 2024 presidential election. Now, things can still change, Buck. Ron DeSantis has gotta win reelection in Florida this November. His wife has been unhealthy. She had breast cancer. She appears, fortunately, to have recovered from that. But there are potential health considerations there. Trump is obviously over the age of 75. He seems to be in great health right now. But that’s always worth mentioning, too. But it appears increasingly likely that that is going to be a battle of leviathans in the Republican Party for 2024’s nomination.

BUCK: I feel like the rest of the country is gonna have to ask for Ron DeSantis to — they’re gonna have to ask Floridians to be willing to part with their favorite governor because he’s got audiences now listening FLA Tampa, IOD Miami, all up South Florida and then, you know, on the west side.

CLAY: The panhandle, where I live, is the capital of the Republican Party now, and both these guys live there.

BUCK: And so it’s just gonna be so interesting to see it. But I know they don’t want to give up their governor and he’s heading into a presidential… Well, let’s be honest. Do they even want to get him up to the White House but certainly even to a presidential election would be a big shift in focus that would occur, although I think people can handle — people do handle — both of those things. I just say this, though, Clay:

He’s gonna win reelection it looks like in the governor’s race in Florida not by a little bit, but by a major amount and also will have changed the registrations of hundreds of thousands voters, from down a few hundred thousand to the Democrats to up statewide a few hundred thousand Republican. So, we live in interesting times, Clay. That is for sure.

CLAY: I just don’t want our audience to be shocked by this coming battle. We want to keep you updated. That, I believe, is going to happen.