When former President Donald Trump appeared in a Manhattan courtroom to be charged with 34 counts, most of the rest of the likely 2024 Republican presidential field rallied behind him.
This included the biggest potential rival of all, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
“It’s almost a little bit of a unifier right now,” one Florida GOP operative said as the two Republican leaders orient their fire at the elected Democrats prosecuting Trump. “There’s a pause on the beating up of each other. How long does that pause last? I don’t know.”
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Republicans have largely rallied behind Trump after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unsealed the indictment in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case. The news marked the first time a former or sitting president has been hit with criminal charges.
For months, DeSantis has mostly refrained from firing back at Trump, whose attacks on the governor have sought to paint him as an establishment favorite who can’t be trusted.
Trump’s allies have chastised DeSantis for coming to the former president’s defense ahead of the indictment with a reference to “porn star hush money.” And when DeSantis accused the “Soros-backed” Manhattan district attorney of waging a political vendetta against Trump, the governor took heat for failing to use the former president’s name.
That pushback from Trump’s closest followers is to be expected, but DeSantis is targeting a broader audience, the operative said.
“I thought it was a very strong response, to be honest,” this person said, noting it was “playing well” with Republicans in Trump’s home state.
DeSantis’s pledge that his state “will not assist in an extradition request” did not go unnoticed, striking some as opportunistic since Trump did not fight extradition.
However, one operative said it would likely prove effective by inoculating the governor against criticism that he had not sufficiently defended the former president. Trump was arraigned on April 4.
“If you take yourself out of Florida and you’re a Republican in Iowa or New Hampshire or Nevada or California, what the governor of the state of Florida said is perfectly on point,” this person said.
Nevertheless, after the indictment came, this person said that Trump’s team was caught off-guard, some raising speculation that the former president’s warnings had accelerated the time frame.
The brief detente between Trump and DeSantis may not last long.
When FBI agents descended on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in search of classified documents last year, DeSantis slammed what he called “the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents,” coming to the former president’s defense.
“The Mar-a-Lago raid put a pause on it. And now the indictment has put a pause on it,” the GOP operative said. “But it was only maybe a month after the Mar-a-Lago raid that things resumed.”
Trump faces other legal perils that could complicate the dynamic.
A grand jury in Georgia is investigating the former president for his alleged interference in the 2020 election. A Justice Department special counsel is investigating his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, among other inquiries.
“It’s the one-two-three punch,” the GOP campaign strategist said. “This is the first.”
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Trump ally Bryan Lanza said the indictment, which has come under criticism from former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would prove to be “a disaster” for Democrats. Lanza pointed to Cuomo, who said in a recent radio interview that prosecutors bringing “partisan” cases confirm people’s “cynicism.”
In a sign that DeSantis may be moving closer to an announcement, Florida lawmakers on Thursday introduced draft legislation needed to change the state’s resign-to-run law, a requirement if the governor intends to make a presidential bid before his term expires.
