 Vanity Fair published an interesting analysis by Gabriel Sherman where he discusses what a potential DeSantis 2024 campaign would look like and there's a lot of really interesting elements of this article but the thing that really stood out to me was DeSantis' true feelings about Donald Trump and spoiler alert he is not keen on Donald Trump. Now we've known for quite some time that Donald Trump is not a huge fan of Ron DeSantis, not necessarily because Ron DeSantis is a bad politician and Trump's eyes per se but because Ron DeSantis obviously is kind of stepping on Trump's toes. Quote Trump says DeSantis is overrated, disloyal and a know-nothing and this is what a Trump friend told the Gabriel Sherman. Now DeSantis hasn't really publicly condemned Donald Trump but it turns out the feeling is mutual because DeSantis according to an ex DeSantis staffer had some pretty strong words about Donald Trump. Sherman writes DeSantis in private trashes Trump quote he calls him a TV personality and a moron who has no business running for presidents a former DeSantis staffer said DeSantis tells donors that if he takes on Trump he would launch a full frontal attack on his record and competence according to a GOP source briefed on the conversations quote DeSantis says the only way to beat Trump is to attack him head-on he says he would turn to Trump during a debate and say why didn't you fire Fauci you said you would build the wall but there is no wall why is that so that to me is really fascinating because I think that that strategy is the exact strategy that you need when going up against Donald Trump I don't think that it's a full proof strategy because Trump's base of support isn't necessarily driven by a base of people who are strictly ideological this is a cult of personality so Trump could easily deflect but the problem here is that Trump is being put on the defensive now the reason why Trump was so effective back in 2015 2016 is because he was the outsider he was basically blasting the records of incumbent Republicans and that was very effective but now DeSantis is essentially going to emulate Trump's strategy and use it against him and I think that if any strategy against Trump in particular is going to work this is the strategy that's going to work now what matters I think is that this comes from DeSantis if for example Jeb Bush tried this strategy I don't necessarily think that that's going to work because he doesn't have the clout and the credibility and the political capital that Ron DeSantis has DeSantis has spent years proving that he's a Trump loyalist even if behind the scenes that's all just kind of fake right but DeSantis has taken on this mantle of the next Trump in a multitude of ways he's not necessarily creating a new form of Trumpism rather than he's creating his own path of American urbanism you know emulating the Hungarian Prime Minister so I think that DeSantis by creating this whole persona around him who is really not afraid to own the lives and whatnot he can perhaps be one of the few people who would successfully be able to institute this strategy against Donald Trump so I would absolutely love to see DeSantis and Trump in a head-to-head debate they're both terrible but if these two individuals who are bad politicians and objectively bad people I think rip each other apart that I think is good for the country overall now here's one thing that I have to mention about this article I absolutely hate the disingenuity because these politicians behind the scenes they feel one way and I think that most of us suspected that DeSantis didn't necessarily respect Trump I think that most of us suspect that most Republicans don't actually respect Trump I mean let's be clear here there are the tried-and-true Kool-Aid drinkers the Marjorie Taylor greens of the world the Paul goes stars of the world these individuals I do believe that they are loyal to Trump in reality right not behind the scenes talking trash about him like DeSantis I think they actually do believe what they're selling but with a lot of Republicans Ted Cruz run DeSantis they're so fake they pretend as if they love Donald Trump they'll defend him publicly but behind the scenes we see what they're saying and there's something so inherently gross about that now that's not to say that like normal people are always going to be super assertive I mean we've all been at these jobs where we want to trash talk our manager but we don't do that right but there's this extra layer of phoniness to politicians that just rubs me the wrong way the fact that DeSantis feels this strongly about Donald Trump he thinks he's a moron who shouldn't be running for president I mean say that why are you withholding your feelings and we all know that that's kind of a rhetorical question he's withholding those feelings because he wants to unleash on Trump at the best time now he is kind of walking this fine line where he's trying to cultivate this persona for himself and the article gets into this but at the same time he doesn't want to instigate a direct confrontation with Donald Trump ahead of the primary because he knows that that could hurt him he wants to kind of ambush Donald Trump on a debate stage so overall this is really fascinating I have no love for either of these two goons but if they're going to rip each other apart I think that by and large that's a net positive for the country and for democracy