Former President Donald Trump is supposedly running for president as a Republican, and yet his talking points about the state of Florida are no different than that of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
Take this quote: “Under Ron DeSantis, Florida has become among the worst states… to live… find economic opportunity… work… retire… raise a family… pay taxes…be safe… rent a home… have a baby… afford energy… die… be a teacher… be a doctor… be a police officer... for millennials... for working dads [and] for working moms.”
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Or this one: “Florida continues to tumble into complete and total delinquency and destruction. On DeSantis’ watch, Florida has become one of the least affordable states to live in the country.”
Or this one: “Weakness, Ron DeSantis, weakness masquerading as strength across the board."
And finally: “The real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair. He has left a wake of destruction all across Florida and people are hurting.”
Just one of those four quotes comes from Gavin Newsom, the face of the Democratic Party’s progressive utopia in California, where residents are fleeing to states that are well-run (such as Florida). The other three come from Donald Trump and his campaign, running for the GOP nomination while trashing the successful statewide GOP operation that turned Florida from a swing state into a solidly red state. Go ahead and try to guess which of those quotes was given by Newsom.
Oh, and let’s add one more wrinkle to this game. Which governor is Trump talking about in this quote: “He was always very nice to me. He said the greatest things. He would say things like, 'Oh, he's doing a great job.’ That's why I could never hit him because he was so nice to me.”
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No, Trump didn’t say that about DeSantis, or any other Republican governor for that matter. He didn’t even say it about a generic Democratic governor. That was Trump talking about none other than Gavin Newsom. Perhaps that explains why Trump is using Newsom’s talking points to bash the most successful GOP-run state in the country.
The correct answer to which quote was said by Newsom is the one about DeSantis’s “weakness,” and yet it’s only a matter of time before Trump appropriates that one as well. The GOP nominee in 2024 could be the guy who helped make Florida the success story it is, or the guy who agrees with Newsom that it is a terrible state to live in. The Republican Party that chooses the latter deserves the losses it has embraced over the past three years.