One of the primary messages Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is selling in his 2024 Presidential campaign is that he would do everything former President Donald Trump did not do or should have done, with the benefit of having a second term. During a recent appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, he dismissed the idea of Trump behaving "much different" in a second term, especially regarding appointing people into various positions.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski began by asking what Gov. DeSantis felt about a recent issue of The Atlantic warning of the "threat" a second Trump presidency poses. Rather than play into the question's wording, Gov. DeSantis answered, "I think that he really did not take some of the action that he could have Constitutionally taken."
By this, he said that Trump "did not move forcefully to build the border wall that languished for years. He did not fire people like Anthony Fauci from the COVID task force when many conservatives, including me in Florida, were saying that they needed to go in a different direction, even giving Fauci an award on his last day in office." DeSantis has asserted that if he wins the election, he will fulfill Trump's promise of building the wall and "having Mexico pay for it" and prosecuting Fauci.
Additionally, DeSantis criticized Trump's keeping of people in his cabinet and other positions of power he has since publicly blasted that "he could have fired." Fauci, however, could not have technically been fired by Trump, and many of his former officials have since turned against him, which are likely whom DeSantis referred to.
Moreover, he said Trump did not "really take action any action to reform the bureaucracy or to curb the administrative state. So I think what is being said would be him acting in ways that actually were not how he acted before. He deferred a lot of his presidency to some of these people that he now criticizes."
The Florida Governor made similar remarks in June when Trump said he would eliminate the "Deep State" in six months. DeSantis asked in response, "Why didn't he do that in his first term?"
Despite these critiques, Trump remains the undisputed frontrunner in the Republican primary, leading the other candidates by a wide margin, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has gained momentum over DeSantis.
