Onstage at CPAC, Ron DeSantis just turned into Trump’s worst nightmare

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. He buys heavily into the American conservative belief that everywhere outside of the US is a communist hellhole replete with forced labor camps, which is why “If Florida had not led the way, this country would look like Canada or Australia” didn’t conjure up images for his audience of low Covid levels and liberalism but instead desperate populations living under modern-day Stalins. He promised, somewhat nonsensically, that “if Biden dumps illegal aliens in Florida, I’m re-routing them to Delaware,” to riotous applause DeSantis spoke of Florida like it was a country and he the president, which worked well as a de facto presidential pitch. He spoke about how people “around the world” see him, the governor of Florida, as “a citadel of freedom” while they “chafe under authoritarian regimes” — people like “Samuel from Australia” who, he said, had written to him to say: “Thank you for standing up for us.” Objectively, the claim that Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, is known for standing up for a random man in a country at the other side of the world is ridiculous — but as DeSantis rattled through the rest of his supposed global fans, it was clear the audience was indulging in the fantasy with him: DeSantis as world leader, talked about in the halls of power, catching the ire of Trudeau and the admiration of downtrodden peoples everywhere. His constant use of the word “regime” to describe Biden and some of his warmongering imagery jostled uncomfortably with Biden’s discussion of the Russian regime and the very real conflict going on inside Ukraine.