Whipping Boy

Is Ron DeSantis suffering for Donald Trump’s foreign policy sins?

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The two men during happier times, 2020. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Today is day four of right-wing hawks piling on Ron DeSantis over Ukraine and I’m increasingly annoyed by the spectacle.

Even though I joined in the pile-on. Eagerly!

His critics aren’t wrong. DeSantis blithely dismissing Russia’s war of conquest as a “territorial dispute” is as disgraceful and Orwellian as we detractors claim. What rankles is watching congressional Republicans suddenly summon the nerve to flog a party leader for moral equivocation toward Russia after eight years of spinning for la grande orange.

Nothing Ron DeSantis has said, and likely ever will say, approaches the depths of despicable Lindberghian useful idiocy displayed here.

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  1. Jrleek

    I'm surely an outlier on how strongly I feel about supporting Ukraine. But that's why I am pissed at Desantis over this. https://i.imgflip.com/l2f5l.jpg

    He should've gone fully the other direction. "I don't like how Biden is supplying Ukraine. He's being too TIMID. 500 Abrams and 500 cruise missiles for Ukraine on day one! F-35s after some training."

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  2. Jack.Kay

    There is just one positive thing I can say about Joe Biden: he is not Donald Trump. And if The Donald is the nominee, I will not write-in alternative GOP candidates as I did in 2016 and 2020. Rather, I will vote for Joe and hope the GOP goes the way of the Whigs. As for DeSantis' comment on Ukraine, it was heinous no matter what his calculus. This is our Munich moment, and we are far short of the "all aid short of war" that FDR finally arrived at with regard to the U.K.'s fight against Hitler. DeSantis set back the cause of freedom, and endagered further the people of Taiwan.

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      Chuckgold

      Jack,
      "I will not write in alternative GOP candidates as I did in 2016 and 2020. Rather, I will vote for Joe and hope the GOP goes the way of the Whigs. "

      Welcome to the club. Some of us have been there with you since Trump's nomination in 2016. We couldn't know that he'd institute protectionism, alienate NATO members, idolize strong-men like Putin & Kim Jong-un, spend recklessly, abandon the Kurds, deal with the Taliban against our interests, or deny the 2020 election results and whip up an insurrection. But with his lack of character, lack of morals, and lack of loyalty to anyone throughout his life, none of that surprised us. I think that the GOP's slavish surrender to Trump and its abandonment of former principles to suit his every whim has earned it its own Whiggish demise.

      As a lifelong GOP voter (until 2016), I never expected that it would be necessary to say this. A vote for President Biden is a vote against Trumpism and for liberty.

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    Dave in Houston

    2024 already sucks.

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    Jay

    I'm curious about the extent his wife is calling the shots here. As a Florida resident we have been treated to several years of stories about how the lovely Ms. DeSantis is the smarter and more ambitious of the couple. In that telling, she is Nancy to his Ron although without Ron's natural charm and leadership qualities.

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  5. Abby Aasbo

    It’s not just the fear of being primaried. These elected officials are *literally* afraid of his voters.

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    John N.

    "...the Republican invertebrates in Washington pummeling the governor this week" that "make excuses for him, or judge him fit to continue leading the party after he tried to overthrow American democracy."

    As long as I live I'll never understand or forget the "conservatives" and evangelical "christians" who supported (and still support) this awful person, who continue to advance him as their leader, as someone they followed and will continue to follow.

    The only people worse then Trump are those who still support him.

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  7. Bloodredinabluestate

    I may not be able to handle the 2024 campaign. It's excruciating already. If these politicians would only say what they really believe from the start, and if they change their minds on an issue, admit that they've changed and state the reason why, we who follow politics wouldn't always be on the verge of a brain hemorrhage.

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  8. SN

    I would like to highlight a reader's comment from Mr. Cattogio's article, "The schism is here" It is one of the most commented article that he wrote so far.

    "Funny that a healthy American democracy depends on Ukrainian nationhood.

    Slava Ukraini, and God save these United States."

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    Stephanie

    I think more Trump voters would vote for DeSantis if he were the nominee, than DeSantis fans (they either dislike Trump or just think it’s time for a new face) would vote for Trump, should Trump be the nominee.

    If DeSantis were the nominee, he’d get more votes than Trump would in the general, because the MAGA voters like his jerk behavior and the Never Trumpers would rationalize it.

    I want to read more about his social skills, though. I love the pudding fingers story, and how he eats like a pig at meetings, and how his campaign puts up rows of bicycle racks to protect him from crowds of ordinary people who want to interact. (Glad I have that Daily Beast subscription!)

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      O,W.L.

      I heard somebody call him "Pudding Fingers" on a podcast last week and I think we have our winning nickname for ol' Meatball. Trump's probably mad he didn't come up with it himself.

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    JohnD

    Something in my gut suggests that neither Trump or DeSantis will win in 2024. However I do think the US is in a long term internal debate regarding its global leadership role. A step back from its central leadership role of the past 70 years would not surprise me. Like a lot of empires if the past (I know the US is not an empire but the analogy works) we are finding ourselves a bit overextended and a reset might be in order.

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