Believe It: A DeSantis Presidency Could Be Even Worse Than Trump
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Donald Trump was and is a lazy, ignorant narcissist. The Florida governor is a smart, motivated, very right-wing Catholic who wants to remake America as he imagines God wants it to be.
Many Republicans who were put off by Donald Trump’s peccadillos, ignorance, and outlandish behavior have found their anointed one in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis offers Trumpism without Trump, promises to Make America Great Again without saying the words, and wallows in the culture-war cruelties that propelled Trump into office in 2016. The betting markets now have DeSantis and former President Trump in a dead heat for the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
There’s little appetite among either Democrats or Republicans for a Biden v. Trump rematch. Recent polling suggests that Biden loses in a match against DeSantis, even if a third-party candidate (like Trump) is in the race. Given this, and given how DeSantis seems relatively sane and intelligent compared to Trump, the public seems to assume that DeSantis would be a better president than Trump.
This is a horrible mistake.
DeSantis differs from Trump in several ways. While Trump couldn’t care less about “critical race theory” or transgender people, and simply throws stuff into speeches at his rallies that get the biggest reaction, DeSantis is a deeply conservative Catholic and a true believer in the culture wars he engages in. The other key difference is that DeSantis is a Harvard- and Yale-educated lawyer, while Trump skated through a bachelor’s in business where one of his professors called him “the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”
The damage Trump was able to do was limited by his lack of discipline, ignorance of how the system worked, laziness, and lack of motivation. He is simply a narcissist who likes feeling rich, powerful, and important. DeSantis, however, is none of these things. He is not lazy. He has discipline, motivation, and an intimate knowledge of how to use the system to get what he wants. DeSantis fully intends to remake America the way he believes God would want it to be, and his knowledge of law and governmental structure allows him to do it on a scale, and with a precision, that Trump could only dream about.
We can already see the sorts of strategies DeSantis would employ as president by looking at what he’s done in his role as governor of Florida. DeSantis pursues legislation that he intentionally frames as moderate or commonsense, such as “only” banning abortion after 15 weeks (but without exceptions for rape or incest). His “Don’t Say Gay” law was framed as being about not teaching K–3 students about obscene material.
In reality, DeSantis is pursuing one of the most aggressively authoritarian agendas in the country. He uses two primary strategies: capturing the referees and strategic ambiguity.
Two of the best examples of capturing the referees are how DeSantis quietly packed both the Florida Board of Medicine and the New College Board of Trustees with ideological fellow travelers to bend institutions to their will. The Board of Medicine now includes campaign donors, Catholics who substitute the Vatican’s positions for that of professional medical organizations, and proponents of conversion therapy, while the surgeon general of Florida is an anti-vaxxer. As a result, the Florida Board of Medicine is in the process of banning transition-related health care for children and making it much more difficult for adults to obtain. DeSantis moved the decision-making process out of the public spotlight and handed decision-making authority to people who can never be held accountable at the ballot box.