Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Trump, Desantis take different tack on storm
Former president posts insults on social media
As a major storm threatened the Florida coastline Monday morning, Florida Gov. Ron Desantis held a press conference from the state’s emergency management headquarters, warning residents about the storm’s danger while flanked by state and national guard leaders.
Less than an hour earlier, Donald Trump had delivered a very different message to the public. The former president and GOP presidential front-runner, posting on social media, promoted an unsubstantiated rumor that Desantis was dropping out of the presidential race to run against GOP Sen. Rick Scott, choosing to attack his rival even as Idalia began gaining strength over the Gulf of Mexico.
“Now that’s an interesting one, isn’t it?” Trump wrote, one of dozens of political attacks the Republican candidate launched from Truth Social even as the storm inundated Florida and other southeastern states with water.
For Florida’s two most prominent politicians, the week was a study in contrasting leadership styles. While Desantis responded to the natural disaster in ways the public has long expected its government officials to act — holding press conferences and offering apolitical directions about managing its impact — Trump ignored the storm for days, instead posting a litany of insults aimed at his political adversaries while highlighting positive poll numbers for his campaign.
By the time Trump mentioned Hurricane Idalia in a Wednesday afternoon post, he had already posted more than 140 times on Truth Social since Monday on a multitude of subjects, even dredging up an old letter the late actor Kirk Douglas sent him in 1998. (The count of Trump’s posts includes times in which he reposted messages from other accounts.)
“Kirk was a real Movie ‘Star,’ ” Trump wrote Wednesday, before mentioning the hurricane. “Not many left today. They are mostly woke and weak!”
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign attributed the president’s dayslong silence to an abundance of caution, saying that he “wanted to make sure everyone was safe and listening to local authorities.”
Despite his mention of the hurricane on Wednesday, by Thursday Trump was back to Desantis, hammering the governor over the cost of electricity and insurance in Florida.
The remarks put Trump in a league of his own among the field of GOP presidential contenders. None have attacked Desantis in the days before or after the hurricane. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley postponed a campaign stop in South Carolina this week as forecasts showed the storm on track to pass through Georgia and the Carolinas after striking Florida. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott posted on his official X account directing South Carolinians to the state’s emergency management division before the hurricane made landfall in Florida.