Gov. Ron DeSantis and President-elect Donald Trump will attend the Dec. 14 Army versus Navy football game together amid rumors that the Florida Governor may be nominated as the next Secretary of Defense.
First reported by FOX News Friday morning, a source familiar with the Governor's schedule confirmed to The Floridian via text message that "The gov will be at the game."
Though it was already known that Trump would attend the football game, scheduled for 3 p.m. next Saturday in Landover, Maryland—per Politico—there was no mention of DeSantis tagging along. Trump's Maryland stop-by is no surprise, considering this would be his fifth in-game attendance between the dueling military academies as an elected president.
This would be DeSantis' first game as Governor.
The act of attending a football game together, however small, catches mainstream fire in the context of swirling rumors that Trump and DeSantis talked multiple times about the Governor replacing former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense amid the conservative star's salacious allegations of sexual assault and excess drinking.
Hegseth, who has continued to meet with Senators who must confirm him for the role, is undeterred. Friday morning, Trump added to that confidence with a lengthy social media post hailing Hegseth as a skilled and charismatic "WINNER" who will be a "fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense."
Minutes later, the news broke that Trump and DeSantis—who have publicly feuded and whose inner circles do not get along—would go to Maryland together.
The apparent double-messaging shows that while Trump may publicly back Hegseth—his own nominee—for the military-in-chief role, he privately worries Hegseth may be as unconfirmable as former Rep. Matt Gaetz. Gaetz, a Florida man, faced mounting criticisms for his alleged sex scandals and finicky relationships with fellow Republicans, leading him to bow out of the nomination for Attorney General.
Weeks later, Trump's nominee for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Hillsborough sheriff Chad Chronister, was forced out by the former and future President due to backlash over how he enforced COVID-era protocols. And, more importantly, the rising chorus of voices opposed to Chronister may have made it too difficult to confirm him.
Trump likes his nominees to fend for themselves and prove their worth, the Bulwark reported. If they can handle the heat, without just getting out of the kitchen but becoming a cook's key fixture, they deserve their nomination and can proceed. Hegseth, for one, has fought tooth and nail to stay Trump's nominee.
But is it enough?
