'Did I come off too harsh?' Expert reveals the advice Ron DeSantis refused to take

16 January 2024

On the day after the Iowa Republican Caucuses, where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in a distant second place to Donald Trump despite spending tens of millions of dollars, conservative influencer Ryan Girdusky recalled several revealing conversations he had with DeSantis and his campaign staff.

In an essay for the American Spectator, political consultant Ryan Girdusky — author of the National Populist Newsletter — said that despite his promise to "do whatever [he] could to help DeSantis," he was frustrated that the Florida governor's presidential campaign ignored frank advice he gave them prior to the campaign's launch.

Girdusky wrote about being invited to a private conversation In May of 2023 with Ron and Casey DeSantis (the First Lady of Florida) in Tallahassee, where he and other influencers were encouraged to give their thoughts on the two-term governor's pending presidential announcement. According to Girdusky, he was one of just a scant few present at the meeting who were willing to speak candidly with DeSantis about his biggest shortcomings. He also noticed that, as DeSantis' senior campaign staff were introducing themselves, not one had worked on a winning presidential campaign.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

I said, “You need to attack Trump.”

“You want me to attack Trump now?” DeSantis responded.

“Yes, do you want my phone? You can tweet from my phone.” I replied. Everyone laughed, but I was half serious.

Trump had been attacking him for half a year, and I said, “The first time you ignore it, you seem honorable; the fiftieth time, you look like a p---y.”

Following that exchange, Girdusky went to a dinner meeting with several top DeSantis staffers, and wryly noted that all of the influencers were given a copy of DeSantis' autobiography that Girdusky had loudly insulted at the previous meeting. He recalled telling DeSantis campaign manager Generra Peck that he felt "like we’re at an Irish funeral, waiting for the body to die."

"Did I come off too harsh?" Girdusky asked one staffer.

"No, you're fine," the staffer responded. "But no one speaks to him like that."

Later, when Girdusky heard that DeSantis was announcing his presidential campaign via Twitter Spaces alongside Elon Musk, Girdusky recalled thinking that it was "the stupidest f---ing idea I’ve ever heard."

During the Twitter Spaces conversation, Girdusky said he was "pacing like [he] was preparing for a marathon" while waiting for his turn to speak. Right before the Q&A session ended, he took himself off mute, saying "No, I need to say something."

"I said that the advance team was an embarrassment and should be fired, the messaging was all wrong, that doubling down to try to sound like an Evangelical when he was not an Evangelical would not work and his interview on the Christian show [on local TV in Iowa] was embarrassing," he wrote. "This is why the super PAC has nothing to work with, and they say it, you’re not discussing the issues. This is Ted Cruz 2.0."

Girdusky wrote that that was the last DeSantis strategy call he was invited to, and that "the writing was very much on the wall."

Click here to read Girdusky's essay in full.

From Your Site Articles