Previously, I looked into former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as Donald Trump’s potential VP pick, weighing the benefits of having an outsider run with an outsider for the Republican ticket. But now, let’s look at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who seems to be making his own headway into being a VP pick himself.
(READ: Hear Me Out…Tulsi Gabbard Would Not Be a Bad VP Pick)
Let’s start with the elephant in the room. DeSantis and Trump ran a really contentious race, which is par for the course with Republicans, but when you run against Trump for office, any race is contentious. Trump isn’t kind when he fights. This is both his blessing and his curse because while it may push him into the center spotlight, it alienates many people.
However, with the campaign over, and Trump now heading toward the General, several Republicans are positioning themselves to be his VP, and Trump definitely has a shortlist where you will find Ron DeSnatis’s name among a few others. DeSantis, being the good guy he is, isn’t signaling his opposition to that fact and is even raising money for Trump to the tune of over $3 million. Trump, in return, is appreciative that he has DeSantis’s support.
“Ron, I love that you’re back,” Trump said during a call into a Ford Lauderdale Fundraiser being put on by DeSantis.
Let’s say that Trump selects him. What could we look forward to?
Firstly, this may end up de-ruffling the feathers of quite a few DeSantis fans who had had quite a bit of animosity built up from the primary. While I don’t expect every DeSantis supporter to shrug it off, I think enough would bring even more oomph to Trump’s campaign and smooth out one of the Republican Party’s greatest handicaps, interparty friction.
Secondly, not everyone trusts Trump, but many do trust DeSantis. Given his track record in Florida, having someone like DeSantis, a conservative bulldog when it comes to the fight, would add some much-needed confidence in terms of decision-making. Moreover, DeSantis would bring a balancing of political styles, specifically those who like Trump’s policies but would feel a lot better with someone who can act a little more traditionally behind the microphone.
Then, of course, there’s the future to look to.
Trump is no spring chicken, but DeSantis is. If anything were to happen to Trump, the Republican Party can rest easy knowing that the guy taking over is competent and trustworthy. Even if anything doesn’t happen to Trump, Ron DeSantis is on his last term as Florida governor and politicians rarely benefit from being out of the spotlight for long. DeSantis being VP keeps him front and center so that when 2028 comes around, he’s primed and ready to assume the role of POTUS.
This doesn’t mean it’ll all be rainbows and butterflies.
A Trump/DeSantis ticket won’t do much to bring in independents, though one could argue Trump is already doing that just fine. If the Bronx rally showed us anything, it’s that even Democrats seem to want to vote for Trump and don’t seem to tie him completely to the Republican Party.
(READ: The Blurred Political Line Between Donald Trump and the Republican Party)
Then there’s the fact that this won’t be a ticket for moderate Republicans to enjoy. You can expect some pushback in D.C. from Republicans who find themselves comfortably in the McConnell camp. However, perhaps this will trigger something of a showdown within the Republican Party between moderates and conservatives that would decisively put the Party in one group’s hands or another. This is an event many have been calling for for some time now. That said, it will complicate anything huge that a Trump/DeSantis team would try to accomplish.
Then, of course, there will be the fact that this ticket will cause a meltdown among the media who will not ever stop declaring the sky is falling and that we’re all going to die because Trump and DeSantis are going to bring down plagues, fire, and brimstone at any moment. Any twitch of their finger or unusual blink will be overanalyzed, overreported, and overdramatized.
The press will do its best to render anything good the duo do as offensive and destructive purely because they’re two people that they can’t help but hate more than any others.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s fun to watch the press go apoplectic, but the sad fact is that they still have too much pull in this country, and they will abuse the absolute hell out of it to paint these two as apocalyptically bad, setting off a chain of events that will see towns burn, people die, and good policy made bad. If this is the ticket we get, these boys better have a plan to embarrass and discredit the press with every plan they have.
Overall, I like this ticket. I think it gives conservatives a reason to get motivated and it helps us pave a smoother path to 2028.