I was looking at this graph of the Republican primary polls from the beginning of this year until now when a realization struck me:
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/
Trump's numbers go up at almost precisely the same points in time that DeSantis' numbers go down, and by almost the same percentages. Has DeSantis' self-immolating campaign actually made Trump's popularity increase?
Planned
Maybe DeSantis acted as he did, because it was pre-arranged to help Trump.
Also to see who would stab him (Trump) in the back at the first chance. He speaks of that all the time how people he wanted to trust betrayed him.
Simple. It was Trump voters who went to Ron, thinking Trump could go to jail and we needed a different conversation to win.
As Trump wins his cases and Ron continues to dance with the neocons Bush and Rove, they leave and go back to Trump.
This is the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans will cut bait and run at the first sign of trouble. The Democrats will stick to the P.O.S. they support to the bitter end.
I agree with everyone else this may have been planned.
Not only was it planned to bounce numbers for POTUS, IMO (I mean, who TH walks around in clown-sized boots that are obviously highlighting the ridiculous?), but also (very important here...) to identify RINOs and suck money out of the DS coffers. This allows MI to trace more financial paths back to the DS puppet masters, maybe even uncover previously unknown sources of DS funding.
DeSantis' and Trump's audiences overlap a lot. Most likely it's anyone who had chosen DeSantis bailing and choosing their next best option.
That's why I'm surprised DeSantis ran this cycle. He could have waited to be the next MAGA candidate after Trump, but decided to try and compete with him instead.