DeSantis focuses on contrasts with Trump: ‘Fauci-ism,’ administrative competence, leading vs. following polls
Timothy P. Carney
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in making his unofficial pitch for the Republican presidential nomination, focused on subtly drawing distinctions between his record and that of the front-runner, former President Donald Trump.
Speaking at the Heritage Foundation’s Leadership Summit right outside of D.C., DeSantis never named Trump or directly attacked his administration, but his list of his own accomplishments seemed crafted to bring to mind Trump’s failures.
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“Florida is the state where our shared values … actually become reality,” DeSantis said. Leadership, he said, isn’t about fighting on “social media” but is about “producing results.”
COVID and the culture wars were the focus of the first half of DeSantis’s speech, along with his own record of winning, in contrast to “the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in the last few years.”
The “culture of losing” was a clear reference to GOP losses in the national elections of 2018, 2020, and 2022, all of which are probably due to Trump’s drag on the party.
On COVID, DeSantis held up Trump-era rules and figures that were vanquished in Florida. DeSantis said he practiced “Freedom over Fauci-ism,” naming the man to whom Trump delegated much of the COVID-era decision-making. This is at a time that Trump is attacking DeSantis on COVID.
DeSantis’s focus on social issues came amid Trump’s demand that the GOP back off of abortion bans and his son’s attempt to tack to the middle on transgender issues.
DeSantis also hinted toward Trump’s tendency to care too much what the media and public opinion think about him.
“Leaders don’t become captive to polls,” DeSantis said. “Leaders get ahead of public opinion.” In 2016, Trump attacked Republicans who bucked popular opinion (see his attacks on Ted Cruz for opposing the ethanol mandate in Iowa), and his calls to moderation on abortion these days are grounded in concern about public opinion.
He added: “We are not going to worry about what the Left and the media say about us. We are going to do what’s right.”
DeSantis also touted his own administrative competence in a way that clearly contrasted the dysfunctional Trump White House: “We’ve been able to operate an administration that does not get consumed in petty conflict or drama or palace intrigue.”