Republican Presidential Primary Down to Two

Happy Monday! We hate to start the week on a sour note, but we have unfortunate news for those of you who, like us, do not enjoy having large bugs land on you when you’re walking the dogs or taking out the trash: Not one, but two broods of cicadas will emerge at the same time this spring across the eastern United States. The last time these two groups of cicadas woke up simultaneously was in 1803. Lucky us. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday evening that the two Navy SEALs who went missing off the coast of Somalia earlier this month while attempting to board a boat carrying Iranian weapons bound for Yemen have been presumed dead. The U.S. military ended the 10-day search-and-rescue mission it was conducting with the help of Spain and Japan, switching now to efforts to recover the two sailors. 
  • The U.S. launched its sixth and seventh rounds of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday and Saturday, going after the Iran-backed militia’s missiles and launchers. The series of strikes began earlier this month in response to the Houthis’ ongoing attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea—an important global shipping chokepoint—but maritime assaults by the group have continued regardless. Meanwhile, CENTCOM said an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq launched a missile attack Saturday on Al-Asad Air Base, which hosts U.S. troops. Though most of the ballistic missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems, some did manage to break through, wounding an unspecified number of U.S. military personnel, who are being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries.
  • A suspected Israeli strike on a building used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday killed at least five IRGC commanders, Syrian and Iranian state media reported. One of the victims, Sadegh Omidzadeh, was reportedly one of the architects behind an Iranian plot last year to ramp up attacks against U.S. troops in Syria. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike. 
  • At least 25 people were killed in the shelling of a market in Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, the pro-Moscow leader of the region claimed, pointing the finger at the Ukrainian military—which in turn denied responsibility for the attack on a civilian area. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces reportedly launched a long-range drone strike on Sunday against a Russian fuel terminal on the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg, Russia. The attack, using domestically produced drones, ignited a blaze that caused the suspension of the plant’s operations and represents the latest effort by Ukraine to damage logistical networks fueling Russia’s war.
  • A Uvalde, Texas, district attorney has reportedly convened a grand jury to determine whether any law enforcement officials will face charges for their handling of the May 2022 school shooting at Robb Elementary School, which left 19 students and two teachers dead after officers waited 77 minutes to enter the school while the gunman was still inside. The report from the Uvalde Leader-News about the grand jury comes just one day after the Justice Department released its report condemning law enforcement’s handling of the shooting. The grand jury will likely hear evidence over the course of several months before deciding whether to issue an indictment. 
  • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for president on Sunday, offering former President Donald Trump his endorsement ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. “It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” he said in a video. “He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that [former U.N. Ambassador] Nikki Haley represents.” Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina on Friday also announced he would be supporting the former president after suspending his own campaign in November. Meanwhile, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson—who dropped out of the race last week—endorsed Haley on Saturday, as did New Hampshire’s largest newspaper, the Union Leader.    

DeSantis Backs Down

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' podium at his caucus night event on January 15, 2024, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' podium at his caucus night event on January 15, 2024, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

On Sunday, just minutes before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 3 p.m. kickoff, Gov. Ron DeSantis released a major video announcement. While most Floridians were surely busy watching their football team’s heartbreaking playoff loss to the Detroit Lions, the Florida governor was admitting his own defeat in the 2024 GOP primary cycle.

DeSantis suspended his campaign for president yesterday after months of campaign turmoil and an ultimate failure to break through with GOP primary voters led to a disappointing second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, 30 points behind former President Donald Trump. The Florida governor—who was, at one time, viewed by many as Trump’s heir apparent—threw his support behind the frontrunner, calling former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley a relic of a past Republican party. With the DeSantis campaign canceling a number of interviews and events in recent days, the decision was somewhat expected—but it comes just days before the New Hampshire primary, where all eyes will be on …


As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,147-word story on Ron DeSantis’ suspension of his campaign is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time 

  • After decades of Chinese infrastructure-as-diplomacy projects in Africa, the U.S. may be making inroads with an unexpected partner: the historically leftist nation of Angola. “In 2012, a Chinese state company finished building the train station in this central Angolan town and installed an illuminated computer-controlled board to show departure times and ticket prices,” Michael M. Phillips reported for the Wall Street Journal. “Then the contractors decamped for China and, according to Angolan railway employees, neglected to tell anyone the computer password. So for more than a decade, the departure board has stubbornly displayed 2012 train times and 2012 ticket prices. ‘Over the years we’ve told clients that the information is wrong, so they’ve stopped paying attention to it,’ said ticket-collector Cahilo Yilinga. China’s missteps along the vital rail corridor have helped create a surprise opening for the U.S., which finds itself suddenly challenging Beijing’s commercial dominance in the unlikeliest of places: Angola, a southern African country once solidly embedded in the Communist bloc and the continent’s largest recipient of Chinese infrastructure loans. For the past decade, the U.S. has watched as China’s Belt and Road infrastructure campaign expanded Beijing’s influence across resource-rich Africa.” A U.S.-backed European consortium recently won a bid to rehabilitate the freight route. “The Biden administration has made improved commercial ties with Africa a foreign-policy priority. The railway win, along with several other recent Western business coups, shows the U.S. and its allies can hold their own in the elbowing for economic position and political sway in Africa, according to American officials.”

Presented Without Comment 

NBC News: Trump Confuses Nikki Haley With Nancy Pelosi When Talking About Jan. 6

“Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it, because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people.”

Also Presented Without Comment 

Gov. Ron DeSantis, on November 6, 2023: “With Donald Trump, if you don’t kiss the ring, you could be the best governor ever and he’ll trash you. You could be a terrible, corrupt politician, but if you kiss his ring then all the sudden he’ll praise you.”

Toeing the Company Line 

  • In the newsletters: Sarah and Mike explored why Trump’s indictments have been a non-issue for his primary opponents in The Collision, the Dispatch Politics crew checked in from the campaign trail in New Hampshire, Nick searched (🔒) for the upside of a short primary, Jonah argued that there’s no secret Democratic plan to elevate Trump to the Republican nomination, and Chris analyzed (🔒) Team Trump’s campaign to crush Haley.
  • On the podcasts: Sarah was joined on the Dispatch Podcast by Steve, Jonah, Mike, and John to debate whether Americans ever cared about policy, and Jonah criticized Sen. Rand Paul’s ironic response to Trump’s claim of presidential immunity on The Remnant. On today’s episode of The Dispatch Podcast, Jamie is joined by Democratic strategist David Axelrod to discuss the GOP primary and Joe Biden’s chances in November.
  • On the site over the weekend: Louis Petrich reviewed The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall, Sean Keeley remembered the Emmy-snubbed series Better Call Saul, and Daniel Darling explored the pro-life movement’s aspirational moment. 
  • On the site today: Drucker and Mike write about the fun Haley seems to be having on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, and Charlotte reports from Jerusalem on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future. 
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