The contentious 2024 Republican presidential primary race between former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, continues to be the dominant story in American politics, outside of Hunter Biden criminal saga and the indictments that President Trump is saddled with. Gov. DeSantis appears to be campaigning on co-opting Trump policies, in particularly the draining of “The Swamp,” which DeSantis says he will “Break” if elected, and the current “Biden Border Crisis.”
According to all of the public opinion polls, Gov. DeSantis is being crushed by President Trump, so naturally, DeSantis is on the offensive and is taking veiled, and not-so-subtle jabs at the former president.
During a campaign stop in Eagle Pass, Texas, DeSantis repeated his support for Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, reiterated that he would use the military to go after the Mexican drug cartels, and finally “build the wall” that he said Trump did not complete.
Trump enacted sweeping immigration reforms during his term in office, leading to fewer immigrants attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally.
DeSantis has co-opted Trump’s immigration policy, but has added a harder edge, and making bold promises to end the “invasion.”
Thomas Homan, the former acting director of ICE during the Trump administration, appeared on Fox Business with Mario Bartiromo, where he defended the former president’s immigration policies, and said that all DeSantis was doing was say what Trump has said and vowing to do what Trump has already done.
“Well, if you’re going to quote the Trump playbook, I think he should at least mention his name. Look, I appreciate Ron DeSantis, he’s done a great job in Florida and got some great immigration legislation there, but let’s be clear, I worked for six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan. No one, no one did more than President Trump to secure the border,” Homan said. “Illegal immigration went down 83%. Illegal immigration went down to a 45-year-low. So, President Trump had unprecedented success, something I’ve never seen in my 35-year-career. So, again, I appreciate Ron DeSantis wants to take border security seriously, but everything he mentioned yesterday has already been done by the Trump administration, was very successful by the Trump administration. At least he’s paying attention that these policies worked,” said Homan.
Bartiromo questioned DeSantis’s assertion that he was going to “stop the invasion” and bring the overall immigration problem along the “southern border to a conclusion.”
“Yeah, I don’t know why he said, ‘we’re finally going to get control,’ when we know that Trump had control. You’re right, it was at a 40-plus percent low, now we’re at a 20-plus percent high in terms of number of apprehensions under the Biden Administration,” Bartiromo said.
Here is what DeSantis actually said:
“We are going to be the administration that finally brings the issue of our southern border to a conclusion. We will stop the invasion. We will reassert our nation’s sovereignty and we will fight these cartels so that Americans stop dying from their poison.”
DeSantis’s so-called social media “influencers,” including Pedro Gonzalez, who was recently exposed for making numerous antisemitic and racist statements several years ago in a private chat, have been out attacking Trump for not finishing the border wall and not being as aggressive as he could have been to deal with the border crisis.
Campaign spokeswoman Christina Pushaw recently blamed the border crisis on Trump for not finishing the wall.
Much like Trump did during the 2016 Republican presidential primary race, DeSantis is making bold pro-legal immigration, and anti-criminal alien campaign promises.
Even though Trump’s border wall was hampered by an aggressive effort by congressional Democrats to defund the building of the border security wall, and having his executive orders squashed by federal judges, he was able to get the process moving along.
DeSantis asserts he will build the wall and end illegal immigration.
Considering that Republicans like DeSantis have been railing against the “Deep State,” which has grown even larger since President Biden was elected, how will DeSantis be able to get more accomplished than Trump considering the bureaucratic obstacles in place, and the possibility that Republicans could lose the House of Representatives in 2024?
If DeSantis wins the presidency, he will need have Republicans control both the Senate and House of Representatives during his entire first term to be able to exceed what Trump has accomplished.
In 2018, Democrats took control of the House and all-but shut down funding for the border wall.
Ending illegal immigration could pose to be a heavy lift for DeSantis or any Republican president, including Trump.
