As he always does, Donald Trump is once again proving that there is no one he won’t toss overboard in his effort to promote himself and satiate his maniacal narcissism.
This time, however, the conflict between Trump’s need to be adored and the potential political blowback it could cause for a rising star in the Republican Party is more pronounced than ever because it includes a body count.
The failed one-term former president has a rally planned this weekend in Sarasota. But the state of Florida is currently in the middle of a horrible human tragedy: The collapse of a high-rise condominium in Surfside.
Each day, more people are confirmed dead in the condo collapse, and over a hundred or more are still missing and feared dead. So it would seem the wrong time to hold a rally, wouldn’t it?
Yet despite that, Trump is refusing to heed the pleadings of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seen as a major contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.
According to the Washington Examiner, Trump and his staff won’t even consider delaying the rally:
“DeSantis’s office has ‘made a direct plea’ to the former president’s team, calling on it to postpone the Saturday event in Sarasota. One Florida Republican bluntly said Trump and his team need to ‘read the room.’
“‘The governor is getting tested here as to how far he’s going to be pushed before he breaks ranks with President Trump. And he has to be very careful because this is Trump country,’ this source said. ‘The base loves the president. But they equally love Ron. It’s a showdown going on right now.’
“For now, the Trump camp is holding firm. ‘Nobody wants to cancel,’ a source close to Trump told the Washington Examiner.”
Nobody wants to cancel because no one wants to be the person that has to tell Trump he can’t go to Sarasota and lie for 90 minutes about how the election was stolen from him. That’s all he does now, and that narrative isn’t exactly good for DeSantis, who is in Trump’s shadow whether he realizes it or not.
And yet, DeSantis could truly make a name for himself if he insisted that Trump not show up. He could refuse to grant space for Trump’s rally. And he’d probably get tremendous bipartisan support if he did.
But like nearly every chickenshit Republican, DeSantis is terrified of what happens if he crosses Trump. It could cost him a second term as governor and destroy his chances of ever running for president.
Will Ron DeSantis grow a pair and put his foot down when it comes to Trump? Of course not. He doesn’t have a set of balls and like every other Republican in the Age of Trump, even if he did have stones, he’d gladly put them in a plastic bag and and hand them to his orange Lord and Savior.
No matter what DeSantis does, he’s screwed. That’s what happens when you sell your soul to the devil and get nothing in return for it but a fading MAGA cap.
