Donald Trump Jr. has been trying to snag Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his father’s chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination, with traps made of the Governor’s own words — and by association with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Sharing a video cut by the MAGA War Room Twitter account, Trump Jr. attacks DeSantis saying: “Thank God President Trump rejected the tyrannical Desantis/Fauci plan to restrict domestic air travel during covid!”
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— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 2, 2023
Thank God President Trump rejected the tyrannical Desantis/Fauci plan to restrict domestic air travel during covid! https://t.co/tB1csF8Qtk
Linking DeSantis with Fauci — whose very name makes the far right contingent of MAGA apoplectic — is a pointed appeal to this political base. And Trump Jr.’s canny use of the word “tyrannical” stirs resentment among the far right like few others.
With the video, Trump Jr. aims to paint DeSantis as a hypocrite, since as a 2024 GOP candidate DeSantis presents himself — and Florida — as exemplars in the battle against bureaucratic tyranny.
While Trump Jr. points out here that DeSantis once said he deferred to people “like Dr. Fauci” on certain parts of the COVID response, DeSantis himself claims he created in Florida a “refuge of sanity” against COVID restriction overreach.
âFlorida bucked the COVID-19 orthodoxy and instead used commonsense policies to become a refuge of sanity,â DeSantis says in a recent statement. âFederal vaccine mandates and restrictions were never about protecting Americans from a virus, they were exercising control at the expense of the American economy and the American way of life.”
While Trump Jr. tries to catch DeSantis in this says-this-but-does-that trap, DeSantis leaves himself open to Trump Jr.’s punches not because anything the Governor says on COVID-era videos is radical or particularly surprising, but because of the way DeSantis has subsequently positioned his leadership in Florida during the height of the COVID pandemic — virtually as if he had never heard of Fauci.
The Governor opened up his state and lifted restrictions on businesses and in-person schooling earlier than many states — or as he puts it “bucked the bureaucrats by ensuring kids could be in school, Floridians could go to work and businesses could thrive.”
But he did that after responsibly coordinating his early response with the federal government.
Trump Jr. does get some pushback in the comments for acute selectivity in his posts, including one detractor who writes:
Mr. Junior, do you think that no one remembers back to the olden days of 2020? That we didnât live through it? The Airlines all nearly went bankrupt because of the restrictions to travel, Donald Trump did everything Fauci commanded of him, to the letter
— Why You Pushinâ Me? (@WhyYouPushingMe) June 2, 2023
“Mr. Junior, do you think that no one remembers back to the olden days of 2020? That we didnât live through it? The Airlines all nearly went bankrupt because of the restrictions to travel, Donald Trump did everything Fauci commanded of him, to the letter.”
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