Feehery: Trump should endorse DeSantis

It’s unclear if Donald J. Trump is going to run for president.

He shouldn’t.

Instead, he should endorse Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and support his campaign for president. That would be the best way to secure his legacy.

Trump is promoting the theory that he actually won the election and that the Democrats, Big Tech and the media stole it from him.

That makes sense if your goal is to continue your viability as a fundraising behemoth and as the leader of a movement of aggressive and dispossessed citizens.

But if Trump wants to make America great again and preserve his place in history, he will eventually let his followers know that he is passing the baton to the governor of Florida. 

DeSantis is a better version of Trump. Unlike the former president, he handled COVID-19 correctly. He was smart enough to read the data himself and not outsource the pandemic response to Anthony Fauci.

DeSantis doesn’t viscerally excite the base as much as Trump excites them, but he is more strategic in picking his fights and more precise with his language. He took on Big Tech in a way that will actually yield results. Trump fulminated ineffectively against the social media giants that threw all of their resources into thwarting his reelection but did nothing to stop them. He made a last-ditch effort to stick a Section 230 provision in a defense spending bill, but he failed to convince many in his own party and his veto was overridden.

And DeSantis is smarter about taking on culture war fights. Trump couldn’t get out of his own way and would embarrass even his most ardent supporters with incendiary language. DeSantis would never have said something as stupid as “there are good people on both sides” in the aftermath of Charlottesville debacle. Trump was right to identify critical race theory as a problem that needed to be addressed. DeSantis, because he is a governor, has been able to do something about it.

Trump’s fight to protect the border and stop crime is fully embraced by DeSantis. But once again, DeSantis is smarter in how he approaches it. He doesn’t let his rhetoric get in the way of his results. Trump’s comments about the kind of people who emigrate from Mexico lacked the proper empathy and set him back with the chattering class. The fact is that legal immigration is vitally important to the economic lifeblood of this nation, including legal immigration from Mexico. Securing our border is an integral part of fixing our broken system. DeSantis, who governs a state of immigrants, is much smarter with how he talks about our immigration system.

When it comes to crime, DeSantis takes a no-nonsense approach that is desperately needed in these times when violent criminals are literally getting away with murder. Trump did absolutely the right thing when signing into law criminal justice reform, and the media didn’t give him the credit he richly deserved because the media irrationally hated the president, mostly because his undisciplined rhetoric offended their sensibilities.

When it comes to the media, DeSantis will once again be smarter in how he approaches them. Trump was the most accessible president in our history. He talked to reporters on a consistent basis who he would then call “enemies of the people.” It really made no sense. DeSantis, because he has a political background, will be far more strategic in how he approaches the media. And when he confronts them, as he does often, he is ready to counterattack with facts, examples and statistics. Trump was good at getting mad. DeSantis is better at getting even.

DeSantis will upset the political establishment when he wins in 2024, but he won’t drive them to the irrational lengths that they went to in 2016, when Trump won. He will be smarter in taking on the Democrats and the media and I think he will move to make America truly great again, without the tweets. I think we can all agree that we can do without the tweets.

Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at www.thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) when he was majority whip and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).