Path to prosperity? Trump sees Paul Ryan as road map to beating DeSantis

[Valin]

The Washington Examiner

W. James Antle III, Politics Editor

March 14, 2023

Former President Donald Trump’s sharpest nickname for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is neither “DeSanctimonious” nor “Meatball Ron.” Trump is running against someone named "Ryan DeSantis."

That would be former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), whom he is trying to make DeSantis’s running mate. Trump would also like to remind you who actually did make Ryan his running mate: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the defeated 2012 GOP presidential nominee and Never Trumper.

WHY THE ALSO-RANS MATTER

Trump is blasting DeSantis as a member of the “Paul Ryan establishment” and highlighting his time in Congress supporting Ryan budgets that contained various entitlement reforms.

“You remember … Democrats used that ‘wheelchair over the cliff' commercial?” Trump asked an audience in Iowa during his first trip of the cycle to the early state. “Very effective. That was about [Ryan].”

(Snip)

Now Trump is making Ryan central to his case against DeSantis, the only Republican at all competitive with, and sometimes ahead of, the former president in the polls.

DeSantis, Trump said Monday night, is a “disciple” of Ryan’s who wanted to “decimate” entitlement programs that benefit senior citizens.

(Snip)

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The Bad (Stupid) Trump is back.

[Valin]

Trump Has Got to Stop This if He Wants to Win

Elizabeth Stauffer

March 14, 2023

Donald Trump was a great president. Despite the relentless pursuit by members of a deep state determined to remove him from office, he accomplished a great deal in four years. To name just a few of those achievements: His tax cuts and focus on deregulation triggered an economic boom. He reshaped the judiciary, made America energy independent, strengthened our military, secured our border, and stood up to China.

I voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and would vote for him again in 2024.

There’s no question America is worse off as a result of his loss in 2020.

While it’s still early days in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, at the present time, it looks like a contest between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Clearly, they are rivals and they’re expected to attack each other. That’s politics. But Trump’s incessant and childish attacks on DeSantis are backfiring.

Trump is not helping himself by calling the popular Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious,” “Meatball Ron,” or “Tiny D.” He’s making himself look immature and decidedly unpresidential. The insults are only reminding people of the reasons why so many independents and even some Republicans turned against him in 2020.

(Snip)

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The question is Can He Stop  This? I suspect the answer  is no.