Trump has already criticized DeSantis over how he’s handled the Mouse:
I don’t recall Trump criticizing or messing with corporations (at least not US ones) all that much. I don’t think it’s his style.
That may already by happening to a certain extent:
Please, no more Sanders, though.
Trump has been attacking DeSantis quite a bit already, so he’s not doing that–but DeSantis seems to be imploding anyway.
A rather sizeable number.
The “exploratory committee” is really the “preliminary donation gathering committee”. When they come up too close to empty handed the candidacy quietly folds. And having no money, there is no major media splash to announce the folding so folks far afield never even realize that “Rep Schmutz, TN”, has even tried to run, much less failed to even leave the starting gate.
In DeSantis’ case he has already made enough national-scale noise that his committee discovering he’s undonatable-to will result in a public implosion, not a private one. But implode he may well do.
Actually, it’s fairly rare for a politician to form a Presidential exploratory committee and not follow through on declaring as a candidate. According to the below article by FiveThirtyEight, since 1972, at least 89 people have announced an exploratory or testing-the-waters committee for president. Only six ended up not running. So why do candidates bother taking this step even though they know full well that they’re going to run for President? Basically it gives them two bites at the apple for media coverage of their Presidential “announcement.”
Thanks for that link, the six who failed to run were Mondale in 1976, Laxalt and Schroeder in 1988, Quayle in 1996, Elizabeth Dole in 2000, and Evan Bayh in 2008. All of these were serious folks who had the ability to see that it wasn’t their time. Interesting link.
DeSantis recently took an overseas trip, ostensibly to drum up business for Florida, but did not make a good impression on his hosts.
“He had been to five different countries in five days and he definitely looked spent, but his message wasn’t presidential,” one businessperson told Politico. “He was horrendous.”
Then Trump and Lake both told him not to run for President in 2024, hinting at a MAGA boycott if he gets the nomination.
Country singer John Rich weighed in:
Rich wrote: “I don’t understand the logic of DeSantis running. Let’s just say he beat @realDonaldTrump in the primary (which won’t happen) but let’s hypothesize.”
Rich continued: “If he won, there wouldn’t be one true Trump supporter left that would vote for him and he would be destroyed in a general election. This is a losing proposition no matter how you look at it, so why on earth would he voluntarily run head on into the wood chipper?”
I have to admit that that last phrase from Rich was pretty good.
Yup! I think he’d run head on into the wood chipper because his head is MADE of wood!
Evidently, the Mouse is also relying heavily on evidence provided courtesy of DeSantis himself in his book.
Let me promote what a dick I am to the MAGAs. Whoops!
The MAGAs, at least the ones whose livelihood don’t depend directly on Disney, might really love watching the Wokey Mouse getting thrashed.
I have no doubt that that’s correct!
They’re suicidal cultural warriors.
It does make me wonder who would win if the religious right in general went full on DeSantis against any corporation with business practices or internal policies that were “woke” or “sinful”. There’s a significant amount of money and access in religion, after all, PLUS the aspect of true belief and everlasting hellfire.
Today’s episode of “DeSantis is a stupid loser”: Blatantly using the distinctive Disney font for MAGA-style hats promoting his presidential run.
That font is so clearly Disney’s, he’s begging for a cease-and-desist nastygram at the very least, and since he’ll undoubtedly do the I’m-a-tough-guy response he’ll likely get dragged into court over it on a preliminary injunction motion and then face further legal woes. Has he considered how this will play with corporate types – yanno, the big money guys he needs to fund his campaign – who are keenly aware of the need to protect trademarks? He really is stupid, isn’t he?
Surely, there’s enough dough in pillows and chicken fingers to give it a go.
The evidence that money wins elections is weak.
I don’t think he can beat Trump. But if he wants to have a chance, he has to run to DJT’s right. The same is true if he plans to come in #2 behind Trump in 2024 and then get the nomination in 2028.
As for being sued by a big company for a trademark violation, this is such a complete nothingburger in today’s populist GOP.
But it will tie up time and money he needs for his political goals. And he’s already having trouble getting the big donors to back him.
I don’t know that I’d go quite that far.
There is a minimum number it takes to run a campaign. Even a virtual one that relies on lots of viral amplification. Short of that number you’re going nowhere. It’s hard for presidential wannabes to get to that minimum number on grassroots donations; it takes some big guns writing big checks.
At the opposite extreme, you’re totally right that if (made up number) $150M is the usual price of a competitive presidential run, then having $450M to spend doesn’t triple your odds of success. There are strongly diminishing returns beyond a certain point once you have “enough”, however much that is.
I don’t radically disagree but have a different spin.
Over the years, I have read news stories, where it is stated as fact, that a candidate dropped out of a nomination race when their money ran out. But the underlying problem was that those candidates were not getting many votes.
DeSantis will keep trying to win the nomination until it is a good deal clearer than now that he can’t win. He will rake in enough small contributions, until then, to keep semi-running, or actually running, even without rich contributors.
He has already, without the trademark issue, lost the contributions of the billionaire set. It would be impossible to satisfy them without turning off the bulk of GOP primary voters.
What with inflation, there are more and more billionaires, and the billionaire vote is trending Democratic. This means the Democrats will usually win the money race. But each party will still win about half the elections.
That’s really the only way to describe it, isn’t it? It’s a grievance focused party for the rabble, always hunting for a scapegoat. It’s certainly not conservative anymore.
Your off the cuff estimate is way low.
LSLGuy’s numbers were low, but I don’t think they were radically low.
A lot of money is spent on campaign ads that annoy lots of voters. DeSantis won’t lose from having fewer.
Not if they vote for the people to whom they donate, according to this article from last November.