White House hopeful DeSantis struggling with image

WASHINGTON, DC—Long viewed as the most formidable challenger to Donald Trump in the Republican US presidential nominating contest, Ron DeSantis boasts a record of ultraconservative legislative wins and a pile of campaign cash. Yet the self-styled tip of the spear in what he says is the struggle against the creeping imposition of “cultural Marxism” hasn’t been looking all that sharp of late.

So where has Florida’s pugilistic governor gone wrong?

DeSantis’s long-awaited entry into the 2024 presidential campaign in late May descended into a fiasco as the launch event, carried live on Twitter with the platform’s billionaire owner Elon Musk, was derailed by glitches.

The conversation repeatedly crashed, and many of the 400,000plus users who were hoping to listen in missed the 44-year-old conservative throwing down the gauntlet to Trump.

DeSantis finally began speaking after almost half an hour of confusion and chaos that thoroughly overshadowed what should have been an exultant launch.

The governor had been targeting a younger, white male “tech bro” demographic that has aligned itself with Trump. AFP