Donald Trump has been the presumptive nominee for the GOP presidential ticket in 2024 for months, which is weird because he’s also in a whole heap of trouble. He’s got those four indictments and multiple trials. Thanks to his inability to follow gag orders, he could be in jail well before Election Day. That’s to say nothing about him being more gaffe-prone than the allegedly broken brained Joe Biden. If he’s not the Republican nominee, then who will replace him? It’s that possibility, sources claim, that’s keeping one of his biggest rivals in the race.
Scoop: People close to @RonDeSantis growing increasingly despondent about his chances as he continues to languish in polls. They say he is stubbornly refusing the drop out and has enough money to stay in race hoping that something existential happens to @realDonaldTrump
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) November 1, 2023
On Wednesday, conservative pundit Charles Gasparino said that multiple sources close to Ron DeSantis alleged that he was, as Gasparino put it, “growing increasingly despondent about his chances as he continues to languish in polls.” But that doesn’t mean he’s throwing in the towel. “They say he is stubbornly refusing the drop out and has enough money to stay in race hoping that something existential happens to @ReadDonald Trump.”
In most polls, the Florida governor has held the second place spot he’s maintained since formally entering the race earlier this year. (Some have him tying for the silver with former Trump crony Nikki Haley.) That doesn’t mean his campaign is going well. It’s been plagued with one humiliation after another, the most recent being suspicion that he wears shoe lifts to appear taller and more manly.
Though Gasparino’s sources were kept anonymous, people thought DeSantis riding it out until Trump is disqualified from running in one form or another sounded about right.
Ron DeSantis is literally just staying in the race hoping that Trump dies in the next year… https://t.co/XlemrcAl8n
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) November 1, 2023
DeSantis is hoping Donald Trump goes to jail https://t.co/xoBz2zdoES
— Mostly Peaceful Latinas (@mplpodcast305) November 1, 2023
DeSantis's entire primary strategy hinges on Jack Smith https://t.co/AjlvO4DGx1
— Scott Greer 6’2” IQ 187 (@ScottMGreer) November 1, 2023
In the meantime, DeSantis’ spluttering campaign has at least survived a less chaotic but far more hopeless one: Over the weekend, Mike Pence suspended his nonstarter of a campaign, which left few surprised.
(Via Charles Gasparino)