There is a common misnomer that fascism is fundamentally ideological. Fascist regimes often espouse ideological tenets on often fabricated grounds of ‘racial purity’, eugenics, imposition of moralistic norms, et cetera but these are often inconsistent and vary with time, and are ultimately about holding a powerful sway over the population for inspire horrific actions under the guise of nationalist protectionism. For instance, Nazism is most well known for its persecution of people with Jewish ancestry and homosexuals but there were people high in the National Socialist party and eventual regime who had Jewish ‘blood’ or were known homosexuals and a blind eye was turned even as the government was rounding up millions of people and murdering them for these transgressions.
So far as there is any core ideology, fascism is about exclusionary hypernationalism, corporatism (i.e. merging state and business interests in ways that bolster the political regime), and almost reflexive persecution of some identified ‘other’ whose existence is deemed as a threat even though they are typically disenfranchised and powerless, along with a strong cult of personality around an ostensibly irreplaceable ruler whose leadership and propaganda inspires hatred and ultimately self-destructive divisiveness and hatred. Napoleon Bonaparte was a proto-fascist, and the ideology of racialised fascism has strong roots in mid-19th century France with Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoleon III) arguably being the first true fascist head of state, even though Mussolini was the first successful leader of an explicitly fascist party. Hitler was and remains the most well-recognzsed leader of a murderous fascist regime but you can see the underlying tenets of fascism in a variety of regimes, and while political scientists often classify fascism as a “far right” ideology (such as it is), if you ignore the left-right political definition it is pretty apparent that the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union met most of the categorical definitions of fascism despite the prevarications of Marxism.
Fascism is ultimately about gaining and maintaining power through manipulation of the public by instilling fear, appealing to nationalist and prejudicial sentiments, and scapegoating vulnerable and typically disempowered groups which is exactly what DeSantis is trying to do. Whether he has the charisma to develop a cult of personality is in question but he certainly aspires to power through engendering hatred and appealing to bigotry while controlling education, media, and business interest who may oppose him, which is essentially the definition of fascist political methodology.
Stranger