The detente between former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is a boon for Trump and the Republican Party before November.
But with Trump not yet reaching out to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, he could be undermining his own reelection campaign by not appealing to her voters.
Republicans, including party strategist Cesar Conda, welcomed primary rivals Trump and DeSantis meeting last weekend in their home state of Florida.
“A Trump-DeSantis meeting shows that Trump is trying to consolidate some voters who might still be upset at the harsh words tossed both ways,” Conda, a founding partner of Navigators Global, an all-Republican lobbying firm, told the Washington Examiner. “It is unifying that Republicans oppose President Joe Biden’s radical left-wing policies.”
“Even former Trump Attorney General William Barr has conceded that Biden is so radical that even Republicans with deep concerns about another Trump term will not hesitate to cast a ballot to keep President Biden out of office for a second term,” Conda said.
Considering their similar populist policy positions, Trump’s and DeSantis’s voters overlapped more than either one of theirs did with Haley’s, though DeSantis and Haley did share anti-Trump support. Regardless, by making overtures to DeSantis’s voters, Trump could shore up his support among people who approved of DeSantis’s Trump-esque platform but disapproved of the former president’s temperament.
Conda hopes that Trump and Haley will also “mend fences,” particularly because Haley retains “significant support” from primary voters despite suspending her campaign in March after Super Tuesday.
“Trump benefits by removing the argument that not all Republican primary voters will support him in the fall, and Haley will benefit if she has her eye on 2028,” the former chief of staff to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said. “Party unity is important when you have an election that is expected to be so close in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina.”
For a second Republican strategist, John Feehery, DeSantis’s decision to sit down with Trump after an acrimonious primary was motivated, too, by his own political aspirations. During the primary, Trump nicknamed the term-limited DeSantis “DeSanctimonious,” and his super PAC MAGA, Inc. ran ads about the governor’s reported predilection for pudding.
“Being successful in politics is an exercise in getting over past grievances and finding a way to be for what is going to happen,” Feehery, a partner at EFB Advocacy, told the Washington Examiner.
“It’s Trump’s party, and he has a better than 50% chance of winning the election,” Feehery said. “It makes sense for DeSantis to be seen as helpful.”
Claremont McKenna College politics professor John Pitney quipped that “Trump and DeSantis would probably like to march each other to Kristi Noem‘s gravel pit,” a reference to recent revelations that the Republican South Dakota governor personally put down her dog and a goat on her farm.
“But they have a mutual interest in making nice,” Pitney, a former Republican aide, told the Washington Examiner. “Legal fees are causing Trump to hemorrhage money, and DeSantis can help him with fundraising. He could also come in handy during the fall if the polls show that Florida is close.”
“Whatever happens in the election, Trump will be a force in Republican politics for years to come, and DeSantis will have a tough time with future campaigns if Trump opposes him,” Pitney said.
The Biden campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment about DeSantis, but Biden and his team have made entreaties to Haley voters, including last week through a six-figure digital ad buy after 157,000 Republicans supported her in Pennsylvania’s closed primary.
“For months, Donald Trump told Nikki Haley voters that he didn’t want their support, and they heard him loud and clear,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters. “Our campaign has been clear from the beginning that we welcome anyone who knows that four more years of Trump would destroy our freedoms and devastate our country.”
But at least one former Haley staffer is skeptical the former South Carolina governor’s voters will support Biden, instead encouraging Trump to expand his coalition.
“It’s near impossible to win a swing state without earning the support of Haley Republicans,” the operative told the Washington Examiner. “These are Republican primary voters who are fed up with the drama and chaos of the past and are actively turning out to vote against the presumptive Republican nominee. If Trump wants to win, he should do everything he can to win over Nikki’s support and her voters.”
Trump and DeSantis had breakfast last Sunday, organized by Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul and friend of the pair, at Witkoff’s Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, Florida, at the governor’s request. The meal ended a yearlong standoff between Trump and DeSantis that started when DeSantis posed a credible threat to Trump’s primary campaign, long before the governor dropped out of the race in January after the Iowa caucuses but before the New Hampshire primary.
“I am very happy to have the full and enthusiastic support of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida,” Trump posted on social media. “The conversation mostly concerned how we would work closely together to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Also discussed was the future of Florida, which is FANTASTIC! I greatly appreciate Ron’s support in taking back our Country from the Worst President in the History of the United States. November 5th is a BIG DAY!!!”
DeSantis did endorse Trump in his concession video after days earlier criticizing Republicans who kowtow to Trump, but unlike other primary opponents, he has not campaigned or fundraised for the former president. Rather, DeSantis told donors last month he would raise money for Trump as he tries to maintain relationships with his supporters before another potential bid. To that end, Trump is hosting a three-day donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend.
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“You can be the most worthless Republican in America,” DeSantis told a crowd in Ankeny, Iowa, on caucus eve. “But if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful.”
“You can be the strongest, most dynamic, successful Republican and conservative in America, but if you don’t kiss that ring, then he’ll try to trash you,” the governor said.