It's really appears that DeSantis has been planning to run for President with the blessing of the establishment.

My guess is that he would have announced his plans to run in early 2023 or even late 2022 to ensure starting before Trump. There would have been endless stories about the excitement behind the "DeSantis train." When asked why he was running, he would say something like "so many people have asked me to run for the better of our country." When asked about DJT, he would act dumb and say something like "Well, he has not said he is running. I just want to do this for our country"

When Trump finally announced his run for President again, the MSM would portray DJT being a spoiler who was jealous of Ron's popularity. Now any possibility of that is gone.

If Ron files to run as President, it will either be transmitting the message that he disapproves of DJT or that he is running for President for his own ego. It really will not be a good look.

Ron's message will be that he will get a lot more votes than Trump. Trump will continue to draw huge crowds, while Ron's will be small to moderate sized. DJT will seize on this and mock the size of Ron's crowd's. You can just imagine him in a Rally "DeSanctimonious thinks he is going to bring in so many votes! Have you seen the size of his crowds? He can't even fill a stadium. Wow! I thought Joe had small rallies..."

In any case, as disappointing Nov 15 was for us hoping for DS hanging by ropes, it probably was the best move for Trump politically at the time.

(edit..2 nights ago. I started writing this yesterday, and didn't remember what I titled this)