A new book details the extent of Donald Trump’s obsession with the destruction of Ron DeSantis’ political career during the 2024 presidential campaign and the ruthless tactics his team employed to try and make it impossible for the governor to run for anything ever again.
In “Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power,” reporter Alex Isenstadt writes that in the run-up to DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch in 2023, Trump was incredulous that he was actually going through with it.
“Is Ron really that stupid to run against me? Why doesn’t he just wait until 2028?,” Trump mused, according to the book, which went on sale Tuesday.
The former and future president later told aides that he would have endorsed DeSantis as his successor if the governor had waited another four years to run for the White House, Isenstadt reveals. “Now nobody wants him,” Trump said. “He’s done.”
DeSantis’ hapless showing against Trump forced him from the 2024 race early after being drubbed in the Iowa caucuses. Vice President JD Vance is now seen as Trump’s heir apparent, leading most hypothetical 2028 GOP presidential primary polls, with DeSantis lagging behind by more than 30 points according to one recent survey.
Spokespeople for Trump and DeSantis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In the campaign’s West Palm Beach headquarters, Trump’s top political lieutenants hatched a plan with one purpose: To make DeSantis look weird.
Isenstadt writes that Trump aides exchanged tales portraying the governor in an unflattering light, trading stories about DeSantis allegedly shoving chicken fingers in his jacket pocket or clipping his toenails in the back of his security vehicle. There was also the story of how DeSantis supposedly drove a golf cart behind his wife, Casey, as she ran around the neighborhood so she would lose weight, and the bit about DeSantis allegedly stockpiling dirty underwear in his gym locker while serving in Congress.
For Trump’s camp, the veracity of the stories mattered less than the narrative they built around their opponent.
The thinly-sourced anecdotes ended up in news stories or in posts on the accounts of MAGA-friendly social media.
The crescendo came when Trump’s super PAC decided to go up with a television advertisement seizing on DeSantis’ eating habits, using a story that during a 2019 flight, DeSantis had downed pudding with his bare hands.
The super PAC spent only $100,000 to air it for a single day, Isenstadt reports, but super PAC consultant Taylor Budowich knew he didn’t need to put more money behind it, because it would go viral on its own.
The Wiles Card
Florida native Susie Wiles, the former DeSantis aide who went on to lead Trump’s campaign, also featured prominently in finding ways to chop DeSantis down.
“When DeSantis was a congressman, he was distant and made no effort to establish relationships with them. When he became governor, things didn’t get much better. Now, the Trump advisers realized, if they could get the Florida [congressional] members to endorse the boss, it would be an embarrassment for the home state governor. Wiles loved the idea,” Isenstadt writes.
Rep. Greg Steube got onboard and publicly relayed a story about how after suffering a fall earlier in the year, Trump called to wish him well but DeSantis didn’t.
In the end nearly a dozen Florida congressional members got on board with Trump, whereas DeSantis was left with a single one.
When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth came under fire in early December, Trump considered replacing him with his old nemesis, DeSantis. That didn’t sit well with Wiles, the incoming chief of staff who was discarded by DeSantis following his 2018 gubernatorial victory. “Revenge” reports that Wiles let Trump know she disapproved of the swap but told him she’d get on board if DeSantis was who he wanted.
Trump stuck with Hegseth, who narrowly won Senate approval.
It’s another intentional feature of the second Trump administration: a unspoken ban on 2024 DeSantis staffers.
During the campaign, Isenstadt writes that Trump’s aides had begun collecting names and taking screenshots of social media accounts of DeSantis staffers who were impugning Trump.
“If Trump took up residence in the White House, they would be blacklisted from getting a job in the administration,” reports Isenstadt.
