President-elect Donald Trump poached Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Wednesday as the next Secretary of State, slotting Gov. Ron DeSantis into a difficult position: will he appoint a MAGA World surrogate? Or one of his own allies for the vacant seat?
While Floridians likely won't know until Gov. DeSantis returns from his five-day trade mission trip to Italy, it's clear that a new Trump-DeSantis proxy war may be on the horizon as Trump's outer circle pushes for his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, while pro-DeSantis personalities advocate for the Governor to appoint himself or his Chief of Staff, James Uthmeier.
"Lara would be a phenomenal senator for Florida!" posted Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump's pick for Attorney General and the third Florida man drafted into the 47th presidential administration.
"Lara Trump is genuinely great," Elon Musk said. As co-head of the president-elect's Department of Government Efficiency for its maiden voyage, Musk has been a vocal Trump ally after his near-assassination in July.
Prominent DeSantis accounts disagree, calling pressure efforts to appoint Lara Trump—Eric Trump's wife and a former Insider Edition host—a "blatant astroturf campaign."
"This is nepotism, & it doesn’t get more corrupt than this. This bimbo has zero credibility or credentials," said another DeSantis account with over 20K followers that jockeyed hard for him during the primaries. DeSantis' communications director, Bryan Griffin, told Florida Politics that no decision has been made on a Rubio replacement.
Trump and DeSantis have engaged in a series of proxy wars since the Florida Governor came into the former President's orbit, using the Trump swag-backing to propel him into office in 2018. The friendship wore thin, however, as DeSantis became more popular among Florida conservatives before downright souring in the months leading up to DeSantis entering the brutal primary race for the Republican nominee.
The relationship then slowly patched itself up after DeSantis' presidential loss, reaching its best state since 2018 when DeSantis launched a parallel, state-level investigation into a second assassination attempt on Trump at his Palm Beach golf course—criticizing the DOJ in the process.
But the Florida powerhouses' lull in insults is not without its closed-doors proxy tiffs, which most recently involved a constitutional amendment that would have legalized marijuana. Trump supported it and DeSantis hated it, engaging in a massive (and expensive) statewide campaign to convince voters to strike it down.
It worked.
Before that, the DeSantis-backed Tom Leek beat the Trump-endorsed David Shoar in a close Republican primary for Senate District 7, handing another victory to the Florida governor.
So what will DeSantis do now, if Rubio becomes the next Secretary of State?
Rubio will have to be confirmed by the Senate—which enjoys a Republican majority—meaning DeSantis will have a decision to make: does he institute Trumpian loyalists or his own allies? Aside from the possibility of appointing himself or Uthmeier, other floated possibilities include Attorney General Ashley Moody, Casey DeSantis, or former Speaker of the Florida House Jose Oliva.
Rubio was reelected to the Senate in 2022, meaning if DeSantis appoints himself as Senator, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez will assume gubernatorial responsibilities. He would serve until 2026, as special election laws dictate, and then be up for reelection to carry out the remaining two years of Rubio's term.
Identical rules (minus the governor part) would apply to any other Senate appointee. But the question is; will DeSantis dare to draw Trump's ire in the early days of his presidency? MAGA World already suffered a silent, behind-the-scenes defeat in that their privately backed candidate for Senate GOP Leader, Rick Scott, came in last place. Now, Trump affiliates are similarly backing the president-elect's daughter-in-law, and—as with Scott—Trump himself has yet to weigh in.
