With his January 6th committee-style talking points falling flat, Ron DeSantis is growing more desperate in his pandering to MAGA voters. However, this failing strategy only exposes why his underwhelming campaign is getting trounced in the polls by President Trump in the first place.
Last week, DeSantis floated appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the FDA or CDC. On its face, it’s understandable why DeSantis would think this posturing would be received well by Republican primary voters. RFK Jr. has gained enormous respect from MAGA for his willingness to challenge Biden and the cancel culture that dominates the media, his party, and some corporations. And, unlike the left, we don’t insist that everyone must agree with us on every single issue all the time.
But, despite this newfound appreciation, RFK Jr. is still a liberal Democrat. On a whole host of issues that matter to MAGA voters including energy independence and protecting life, RFK Jr. is far out of step. That’s why DeSantis – who sells himself as someone who never backs down – almost immediately backed down from his RFK Jr. trial balloon.
However, DeSantis’ gaffe reveals an even deeper distinction on the economy that explains Trump’s continued dominance. Like DeSantis, RFK Jr. is a lawyer who makes his bones attacking American businesses, especially the biotech sector. One reason the MAGA movement chose Donald Trump as their champion was because of his record as a savvy businessman who would make deals that would benefit working men and women. In 2016, when the rest of political establishment – including DeSantis – failed to see the threat from China, Trump instinctively understood that the United States was being ripped off. Through sheer force of will, he changed the narrative and woke the American people and Washington up to the danger.
These voters haven’t forgotten how Trump was able to use this rare skill set to build a historically strong economy with booming manufacturing jobs, while finally standing up to China. DeSantis – a career politician – doesn’t get this. When Trump holds big businesses accountable, he creates jobs. When DeSantis launches attacks, his constituents lose them. This distinction may be lost on the media, but it’s not for Republican voters.
According to recent polling from the conservative consumer group CASE, Republican voters overwhelmingly still prefer Trump’s approach. The survey found overwhelming support from Republican voters to strengthen the American biotech sector to counter China, including for Trump/Navarro style on-shoring of vital pharmaceutical drugs to manufacture them here at home. Over 70% of Republican voters want to bolster American biotechs to stop over reliance on foreign manufacturers, crack down on intellectual property theft and counterfeit drugs, and make sure the United States remains the global innovative industry leader.
They recognize the grave danger of being dependent on China for most of the basic components used in U.S. drugs are manufactured in China, while this enemy steals our intellectual property and floods dangerous counterfeit drugs across our borders. Attacking our domestic biotech industry without a thoughtful plan for how to address these vulnerabilities would play straight into the hands of China.
This is a top priority for voters, and no one thinks DeSantis and RFK Jr. would be better than Trump to get that job done. Trump has been warning the American people about these threats for decades and has established a strong record that voters widely appreciate. Go as far back as the 1980s and you can find interviews with Trump warning that the American people were being ripped off from unfair trade deals. Meanwhile, only a few years ago, DeSantis was ignoring reality in favor of reciting platitudes.
This explains why DeSantis’ newly revealed economic plan is simply a carbon copy of President Trump’s proposals. Even its title “Declaration of Economic Independence” is directly lifted from President Trump’s 2016 jobs plan speech. With Trump’s advantage on the economy undisputed, DeSantis has no choice but to mimic him and hope voters don’t notice.
There’s a reason why the Biden administration is targeting Trump with outrageous and baseless prosecutions. Trump is leading a movement, while DeSantis is struggling to follow along. No amount of desperate pandering to MAGA voters can change that reality.
Kaelan Dorr served as Chief Marketing Officer for President Donald J. Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, and prior to that served as a U.S. Treasury and White House official in the Trump Administration.