Tag: DeSantis, Ron

How a Trump Indictment Could Affect His 2024 Presidential Campaign

If Donald J. Trump is indicted in New York in the coming days as expected, the political and legal bombshell would defy historical precedent, upend the former president’s reality and throw the race for the 2024 Republican nomination into highly uncertain territory. With the grand jury in a Manhattan court expected to return on Monday […]

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Trump Puts His Legal Peril at Center of First Big Rally for 2024

WACO, Texas — Former President Donald J. Trump spent much of his first major political rally of the 2024 campaign portraying his expected indictment by a New York grand jury as a result of what he claimed was a Democratic conspiracy to persecute him, arguing wildly that the United States was turning into a “banana […]

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What’s ‘Woke’ and Why It Matters

At least for now, the establishment and the base share the fight against “woke,” for two reasons: The new left is far enough left that there’s room to side with the right while keeping one or both feet in the center. Whether it’s a MAGA fan or a Reaganite, there’s a path for an enterprising […]

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Florida Bill Would Shield DeSantis’s Travel Records

Members of the Florida Legislature moved this week to shield Gov. Ron DeSantis’s travel records from the public, proposing to change the state’s public information laws just as the governor ramps up what is expected to be a 2024 presidential campaign. The bill, which was advanced by state senators in both parties, includes a sweeping […]

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Don’t Be Fooled. Ron DeSantis Is a Bush-Cheney Republican.

One of the strangest ads of the 2022 election cycle was an homage to “Top Gun,” featuring Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. In it, DeSantis is the “Top Gov,” setting his sights on his political enemies: “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is your governor speaking. Today’s training evolution: dogfighting, taking on the corporate […]

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Ron DeSantis Calls Putin a ‘War Criminal,’ Clarifying Earlier Comment on Ukraine

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida this week clarified his description of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” and said that Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, was a “war criminal” who should be “held accountable.” Mr. DeSantis, a Republican who is expected to announce a presidential campaign in the coming months, made […]

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The DeSantis Foreign Policy: Hard Power, but With a High Bar

When Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida made headlines recently by undercutting U.S. support for Ukraine, Republican hawks, many of whom cling to him as their only hope to defeat former President Donald J. Trump, wondered if they had misread him as an ideological ally. Mr. DeSantis ditched his previous backing for Ukraine to align himself […]

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The Politics of a Trump Indictment

If you intend to indict and try a former president of the United States, especially a former president of the United States whose career has benefited from the collapse of public trust in the neutrality of all our institutions, you had better have clear evidence, all-but-obvious guilt and loads of legal precedent behind your case. […]

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DeSantis, Doubling Down, Presses Questions About Trump’s Character

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, the closest prospective rival to Donald J. Trump in early polls of the 2024 Republican presidential primary, pressed forward with questions about the former president’s character and pointed to himself as a low-drama “winner” in an interview this week with the British media personality Piers Morgan. The interview, which Mr. […]

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At House Republican Retreat, Donald Trump Is Once Again the Focus

ORLANDO, Fla. — Speaker Kevin McCarthy arrived at an upscale resort here this week eager to use a Republican retreat to promote the party’s policy agenda and achievements so far, working to paper over the divisions that nearly sank his bid for his job and talk about anything but former President Donald J. Trump. “I’m […]

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Trump’s Potential Indictment Could Alienate Some G.O.P. Voters in 2024

Donald J. Trump, the former prime-time reality TV star known for his love of big stages and vast crowds, has embraced a more humbling and traditional style on the campaign trail in recent months. He held intimate events in New Hampshire and South Carolina. He fielded questions from voters in Iowa. And in multiple cities, […]

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For the G.O.P., a Looming Trump Indictment Takes Center Stage

Republicans on Monday braced for the impact of the impending indictment of former President Donald J. Trump, with his allies on Capitol Hill flexing their investigative powers to target the prosecutor pursuing Mr. Trump while the leading rival for the 2024 G.O.P. presidential nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, took his first swipe at Mr. […]

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DeSantis Breaks Silence on Trump and Criticizes Manhattan D.A.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday broke his silence about the potential indictment of his state’s most famous resident, former President Donald J. Trump, attacking the Manhattan district attorney pursuing the case but also pointedly noting the personal conduct over which Mr. Trump is being investigated. Mr. DeSantis spoke in response to a reporter’s […]

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Never Mind About Ron DeSantis

Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. I guess we have to talk about Donald Trump’s potential indictment and arrest, right? But before we go there: You know how I told you that I’d vote for Ron DeSantis over Joe Biden? Well, never mind. Gail Collins: Bret! You’re gonna vote for our big-spending president? Student-loan forgiver? Tax-the-richer? Bret: […]

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Trump Allies Pressure DeSantis to Weigh In on Expected Indictment

Former President Donald J. Trump’s political operation is trying to use the news of his expected indictment by a Manhattan grand jury to turn the strident base of the Republican Party against his expected rival for the 2024 presidential nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Immediately after the former president predicted on Saturday that his […]

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Ron DeSantis Has a Secret Theory of Trump

Rather than question the former president’s actions on Covid, DeSantis goes after Anthony Fauci, “one of the most destructive bureaucrats in American history,” an official whose “intellectual bankruptcy and brazen partisanship” turned major U.S. cities into hollowed-out “Faucivilles.” Fauci is the supervillain of DeSantis’s book, the destroyer of jobs and freedoms, the architect of a […]

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Covid Politics Leave a Florida Public Hospital Shaken

“If it wasn’t for that incident, we would not be on the board,” Mr. Rohe said. He said the hospital had dismissed concerns about its Covid protocols from ordinary taxpayers who did not feel like Sarasota Memorial, a 901-bed facility, was catering to their needs. “Nobody wants to talk about that,” Mr. Rohe said. “So […]

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For Trump and His Potential 2024 G.O.P. Rivals, It’s All About Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa — Donald Trump was in Iowa on Monday. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida made his first visit last week. Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina have each made recent trips. And on Saturday, former Vice President Mike Pence will be speaking. Even as Democrats have chosen to snub Iowa in […]

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DeSantis, on Defense, Shows Signs of Slipping in Polls

It’s been a tough few months for Ron DeSantis. Donald J. Trump and his allies have blasted him as “Meatball Ron,” “Ron DeSanctimonious,” a “groomer,” disloyal and a supporter of cutting entitlement programs. Now, he’s getting criticism from many mainstream conservatives for calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute.” Is all of this making […]

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Walgreens Is Caught in the Cross-Fire of the Abortion Wars

Caught in the heaviest crossfire are companies like Walgreens that can distribute abortion medication. In February nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general, some representing states where abortion remains effectively legal, threatened Walgreens with legal action if it began distributing the drug. The argument by the attorneys general relies on the federal Comstock Act passed in […]

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Trump and DeSantis Could Both Lose

There are two different narratives running through the Republican Party right now. The first is the Trumpian populist narrative we’re all familiar with: American carnage … the elites have betrayed us … the left is destroying us … I am your retribution. On the other hand, Republican governors from places like Georgia, Virginia and New […]

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Reagan Wouldn’t Recognize the G.O.P. Discord Over Ukraine

On March 8, 1983, Ronald Reagan gave one of the most famous speeches of his presidency, an address that would go down in history as the “evil empire speech.” If you watch it today — and you remember the Reagan presidency — you can see that it was vintage Reagan, full of confidence in the […]

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Florida Will Review Social Studies Textbooks for ‘Prohibited Topics’

The nitty-gritty process of reviewing and approving school textbooks has typically been an administrative affair, drawing the attention of education experts, publishing executives and state bureaucrats. But in Florida, textbooks have become hot politics, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign against what he describes as “woke indoctrination” in public schools, particularly when it comes to […]

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Ron DeSantis’s Ukraine Stance Angers G.O.P. Hawks

Declaring this week that defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion was not a vital interest for the United States, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida cemented a Republican shift away from hawkish foreign policy that has played out over the past decade and accelerated with Donald J. Trump’s political rise. Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis — whose […]

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M.I.A. in 2024: The Republicans Trump Vanquished in 2016

If Donald J. Trump were not running for president in 2024, there’s a group of Republicans who could be expected to vie for the White House: the ones Mr. Trump beat in 2016. Instead, many of these once high-wattage candidates are either skipping the 2024 cycle or have bowed out of national politics altogether. Jeb […]

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Ron DeSantis Says Protecting Ukraine Is Not a Key U.S. Interest

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has sharply broken with Republicans who are determined to defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, saying in a statement made public on Monday night that protecting the European nation’s borders is not a vital U.S. interest and that policymakers should instead focus attention at home. The statement from Mr. DeSantis, who […]

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Trump Will Visit the Same Iowa City on Monday That DeSantis Visited on Friday

Jim Dirk, a 61-year-old dental technician who attended Mr. DeSantis’s event on Friday, said he would support Mr. Trump as the nominee, but was interested in finding another option. “His policies were OK, but he was too flamboyant with his message,” Mr. Dirk said. Steve Crew, who was also at Mr. DeSantis’s event in Davenport, […]

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Don’t Let the Culture War Degrade the Constitution

It’s a sign of the times that the list above — from the left and the right — is woefully incomplete. Careful observers will be able to point to any number of additional culture-war-motivated statutes, regulations and government actions that take aim at the Bill of Rights. State attacks on civil liberties are even affecting […]

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Trump Knows How to Make Promises. Do His Rivals?

To understand the resilience of Donald Trump’s influence in the Republican Party, the way he always seems to revive despite scandal, debacle or disgrace, look no further than the contrast between his early policy forays in the 2024 campaign and what two of his prospective challengers are doing. Judging by Trump’s address to the Conservative […]

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Inside Ron DeSantis’s Politicized Removal of an Elected Prosecutor

A memo that Ms. Lopez sent out days later mirrored that plan, saying, “The legislature makes the law and we, as prosecutors, enforce it.” (She testified that she did not recall consulting with anyone other than her chief of staff.) Two aides to the governor were dispatched to the state attorney’s office in Hillsborough to […]

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A Trip to Ukraine. A Jab at Ron DeSantis. What Is Phil Murphy Up To?

It was a whirlwind few days for New Jersey’s term-limited governor, Philip D. Murphy. On a Tuesday in mid-February he publicly chided Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, by name, calling his education policies “shameful.” The next day at noon, he proposed requiring all new cars sold after 2035 to be electric, following California’s […]

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