Trump could end DeSantis' presidential hopes with a series of surprising attacks: analyst

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21 January 2023

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As Republican contenders for the 2024 presidential nomination begin to test the waters with an emphasis on how they would fare against announced candidate Donald Trump, the former president is reportedly fixated on his main rival, Ron DeSantis, and could be contemplating a new strategy to end the Florida Republican's dream of becoming the party's standard bearer.

Rolling Stone reports that DeSantis has taken some hard positions years ago that "would have raised the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare to 70. It would have weakened Medicare by offering seniors 'premium support' instead of comprehensive health coverage. And it would have eroded Social Security by giving recipients miserly annual adjustments for inflation."

Intelligencer's political analyst Ed Kilgore suggested that Trump could make this a central theme when he finally declares open warfare on the Florida governor for his controversial 2013 proposals.

And, to do that, the former president would have to go after DeSantis from the left, suggests Kilgore.'''

As he pointed out, Trump "famously abandoned austerity politics upon taking office in 2017," choosing instead to cut tax rates for the rich without reeling in domestic spending or entitlements.

With that in his hip pocket, the former president could sell himself to voters as the savior of Medicare and Social Security while painting DeSantis as an ogre willing to destroy the social safety net.

Kilgore wrote, "In other words, instead of maligning his governor as a RINO squish the way he has described most Republican rivals, Trump will go after DeSantis for supporting budget austerity, 'entitlement reform,' and free trade (all positions common among hard-core pre-MAGA conservatives)," while also adding it has some pitfalls by noting, "Trump can’t go after DeSantis’s like-minded 2013 thinking without fragging some of his most devoted followers today."

"If Trump decides on this as his strategy, he won’t pull any punches in pursuing it. The man who in 2016 dared to insinuate that John McCain was a loser for enduring years of torture as a POW isn’t going to show any grudging respect for Ron DeSantis once he begins smiting him hip and thigh," the analyst predicted.

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