All the Ways Donald Trump Will Probably "Handle" Ron DeSantis in 2024

[Celerity]

The ex-president threatened the Florida governor like a Mafia don threatening his enemies. Here’s how that will likely play out.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/donald-trump-ron-desantis-2024-threats



Is Ron DeSantis going to run for president in 2024? The Florida governor has not yet said but at this point, all signs very much point to yes. That would be generally unfortunate for the country, as a DeSantis presidency would be just as bad as a Donald Trump one in many ways, and specifically bad for Trump, as it’s very possible DeSantis could beat him, delivering the former guy’s second presidential-election loss in a row.

Trump clearly knows this, having shat several bricks following the midterms when Republicans and the conservative media alike all but dumped him for Governor Ron. He’s also had time to stew over it while hibernating in Mar-a-lago following the lackluster announcement of his 2024 candidacy. Speaking to The Water Cooler, a conservative podcast on Monday, he told host David Brody, of DeSantis, “So, you know, now I hear he might want to run against me. So we’ll handle that the way I handle things.”

Link to tweet

Now, if you were an alien only recently dropped onto Planet Earth with zero knowledge about the 45th president, you might hear that line and think, “No biggie. He’s gonna handle it. Probably means he’s just going to outspend the other guy and make a compelling case to voters why he should be elected again.” Of course, if you’ve spent any amount of time on Earth whatsoever, you know that when Donald Trump says he’s going to “handle” something “the way I handle things,” you know that that’s absolutely a threat. And while Trump’s language—like that of a Mafia boss—is purposely vague, having observed him for many years, we have a few ideas of what he means when he says he’s going to “handle” DeSantis in 2024.

They include:

Name-calling

The bread and butter of Trump’s arsenal, the ex-president has already begun deploying his patented name-calling tactics against his would-be rival, dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious” at a campaign rally just before the midterms last November. While we don’t know what other names the ex-president will have in store for the governor, we do know that he loves to take shots at his opponents’ heights, and would bet good money that we’ll hear a “Little Ron” before the election cycle is over. The names, as indicated by the aforementioned, also tend to be very juvenile, so “Rotten Ron” has definitely got to be in the cards.

Link to tweet

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