Phil’s response to Rich’s note on Ron DeSantis’s struggles to engineer a breakout by cleaving off some of Trump’s more persuadable supporters is comprehensive. But I would add one additional note on the implicit and explicit contrasts DeSantis has attempted to strike with Donald Trump.

I’ve been thinking about DeSantis’s foreign-policy views today. And while I don’t think the issue will move many votes or dominate the issue set foremost on Republican voters’ minds in 2024, the governor’s approach to Ukraine strikes me as one that misreads the landscape.

DeSantis has now twice expressed his desire to, if not entirely disengage the U.S. from Ukraine’s defensive war against invading Russian forces, at least freeze America’s current commitments in place to avoid even the appearance of “escalation.” Trump, too, has expressed some trepidation about picking sides in this conflict, to his discredit. But he has not said he would wash America’s hands of the conflict. On the contrary, he insists he would deepen America’s diplomatic efforts to resolve it.

Now, Trump insists the sheer force of his awesome will would put an end to the fighting on Day One of his second term. That is one of those statements we are told we should interpret seriously, not literally. Well, on those terms, Trump isn’t saying we should slink back behind fortress America and watch the world burn. He’s articulating an extroverted vision for America on the world stage – more Teddy Roosevelt, negotiating great bargains abroad, not George McGovern urging Americans to come home, heads hung low.

Maybe DeSantis genuinely holds the foreign-policy views he’s espoused. If he does, he’s better off articulating his sincere beliefs than triangulating on the issue. But if he’s being advised that the center of gravity in the GOP now favors retrenchment, that’s not exactly the message the Republican Party’s front-runner is retailing.