Ron DeSantis recently took to the internet to declare that he’s suspending his campaign and endorsing Donald Trump:
I’ve written before about how DeSantis never should have gone anywhere near the 2024 presidential election — and once he DID get in, DeSantis ran a pretty terrible campaign seemingly focused (at least online) on calling Trump supporters names. (Shockingly, calling your political opponents stupid doesn’t make them want to vote for you!)
After a distant (and predictable) second-place finish in Iowa, in suspending his campaign, DeSantis makes one final mistake — and it may be his worst.
Everybody in America knows that Democrats are going to do everything they can to remove Donald Trump from the ballot. By suspending his campaign now, DeSantis basically concedes second place primary finish to establishment-loving Nikki Haley. It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to see how Trump could be determined ‘ineligible’ to be president before the RNC convention in July — leaving only Nikki Haley ‘ready’ to run against Joe Biden (an election NOBODY wins).
DeSantis could have articulated all of this and stayed in the race while endorsing Trump and gathering a smattering of delegates to stay in second place. (This would have earned a bit of trust from me.) Instead, we’re slowly approaching the real nightmare scenario: a Nikki Haley nomination.
It’s hard to put into words how disappointing this Republican primary has been — this was a perfect opportunity for candidates to unite around election security and at least be civil to one another. Instead, the Trump and DeSantis camps have been yipping back and forth like middle schoolers, with the latter group forming the 2024 version of PUMAs.
Here's the uniparty plan.
Have DeSantis' backers withdraw funding, so he has to drop out, making it a two horse race. Let Trump rack up delegates, and let Haley finish a distant second.
Then, watch as Democrats jail Trump on the spurious charges currently pending.
Then the RNC, a private entity, declares Trump, as a convicted criminal, ineligible for the nomination. With heavy hearts, they solemnly give the nomination to the candidate with the second most delegates.
And Voila... MAGA gets neither Trump nor the erstwhile heir apparent, DeSantis.
more evidence imo that this is ALSO a rigged thing. It's not a DeSantis mistake. Just as whateverhisnamewas decided to drop his Dem candidacy after supposedly "winning" in Iowa in 2020. I heard he got a phone call while on the plane to the next campaign stop and turned the plane around. Who makes these phone calls??? The cabal. Why does anyone on earth still participate in this theater?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/buttigieg-exits-presidential-race-after-claiming-iowa-win
"Buttigieg had been scheduled to headline a rally in Dallas on Sunday night. The charter plane was rerouted."