DeSantis Briefly, Awkwardly Acknowledges Trump’s Existence

Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

As his inchoate presidential bid takes shape, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been attempting to focus a combative style on easy targets like Anthony Fauci and Judy Blume while steering clear of criticizing his onetime hero Donald Trump — even as Trump goes to town on DeSantis with some substandard nicknames. But amid the ex-president’s apparent upcoming indictment in New York, DeSantis has come under pressure to join his Republican compatriots in coming to Trump’s defense. So on Monday, DeSantis did that — while also attempting a jab at his rival. It was, unsurprisingly, a bit awkward.

Asked if he might have any role in Trump’s extradition as Florida’s governor, DeSantis first echoed Republicans like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in his condemnation of the prosecution, going off on Manhattan’s “Soros-funded prosecutor,” Alvin Bragg. Standard stuff. But then DeSantis briefly went off track with a dig at Trump. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” he said. “I can’t speak to that.” The crowd murmured. “What I can speak to,” he continued, “is that if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn-star hush-money payments, you know, that’s an example of using a political agenda and weaponizing the office.”

The governor was clearly attempting to contrast his relatively clean record against Trump’s litany of scandals. But his tepid criticism (and the immediate backlash it drew among Trump loyalists online) illustrates the challenge he faces. Shouting too loudly about Trump’s complete innocence may help undermine the DeSantis campaign’s reason for existing. Attacking Trump directly, especially on a topic like payments to porn stars — which few Republicans are likely to care much about — risks alienating parts of the large “Maybe Trump” Republican electorate. It’s a balance that DeSantis will have to figure out in the coming months if he has any hope of endearing himself to voters around the country and making them forget that he once ate pudding with three fingers.