Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the Trumpiest gov of all — Greg Abbott or Ron DeSantis?

So who’s the worst Republican governor? Hard to tell. It’s a close race between Donald Trump’s political twin sons from Florida and Texas.

Just when you think that governors don’t come any worse than fascist, racist “anti-woke” Ron DeSantis, here comes the Lone Star State’s Greg Abbott to upstage Floriduh’s favorite son.

Disney-bashing DeSantis and his cruelty toward gay and trans children are so yesterday’s news.

The political stage and national headlines most recently belonged to theatrical Abbott, who can claim the U.S.-Mexico border teeming with asylum-seekers as his turf — and we all know that immigrant-bashing is the GOP’s favorite sport.

BORDER WARS

Nothing wins you hawkish points quite like the visuals of migrants arriving. And Abbott — who like DeSantis is up for reelection this year and also rumored to have presidential ambitions — has the optics of leading an actual border state on his side.

DeSantis, on the other hand, is saddled with Georgia and Alabama. And when he joked recently about how terrible it would be to have a Castro to the south and “a Cold War” to the north with a possible Gov. Stacey Abrams to the north — it didn’t go so well for him.

Far from Miami, he had no problems poking political fun at the expense of Cuban Americans. He equated U.S. democracy with Cuba’s castroism, and he appeared not to remember that one Castro, Fidel, is dead, and the other, Raúl, retired two years ago, leaving Miguel Díaz-Canel in charge.

But Abbott? Oh, he was in command of his show and he fed the party faithful fresh red meat.

He followed through on a threat to “dump” immigrants (he prefers “illegals,”

as if people were things) at President Biden’s doorstep if the president ended border expulsions under Title 42. This is a World War II “introduction of communicable diseases” provision that allowed the U.S. Border Patrol, under Trump during the height of the COVID pandemic, to expel refugees at the border. Biden has kept it in place.

The coronavirus’ dangers waning, Biden said Title 42 would be phased out by May.

And, so on Wednesday, Abbott delivered optics ready-made for TV and the internet: He offered immigrants processed at the U.S. border and released — from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — bus tickets to Washington D.C.

The takers were then put on a bus for a 30-hour ride and delivered right in front of Fox News headquarters near the Capitol. The same charitable organizations like Catholic Charities that would have helped them resettle elsewhere showed up in D.C.

More to come, Abbott promised, as journalists, even those from mainstream networks, wrongly called the arrivals “undocumented migrants.” They were duly processed when they asked for asylum, as is their right under international and U.S. law, and therefore do have papers.

It is people who overstay visas or cross the border without authorization and live under the radar who are undocumented.

COMMON ISSUES, BAD POLICIES

Cruel as anti-immigrant stances are, rhetoric on what’s a federal issue is peanuts compared to the far-reaching harm these two governors are doing by enacting policies that adversely affect everyone in their states.

Both, for instance, have declined needed Medicaid expansion, forgoing federal dollars that could save lives. Texas leads the United States in uninsured rates, but Florida was saved from that fate by President Obama.

All those self-employed Republicans in Hialeah love Obamacare!

Thanks to them, Florida has the highest rate of participation in the nation by far with 2,120,350 enrolled in 2021.

Both hurricane-vulnerable states have homeinsurance and affordablehousing challenges, yet both governors have failed to address them, preferring to spend time legislating over women’s constitutional reproductive rights.

TIn 2021, Abbott signed in 2021 a bill that prohibits abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. Because of that disastrous precedent, DeSantis was able to get away with signing on Thursday House Bill 5, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Florida and makes no exceptions for incest, rape or human trafficking.

Nothing like two powerful men punishing female victims and empowering the criminals who raped them to become fathers.

Nothing like two powerful men who won’t lift a finger to help the medically needy already here, but who eagerly curtail the rights of women who live in poverty. The rich will get their abortions whenever they want.

But DeSantis — and his successful attacks on civil rights and his abandonment of small government to meddle in practically every aspect of Floridians’ lives — make him the rightful heir to the Party of Trump.

He now rules over who gets to be born. He has ruled over death, too, as the chief enabler of the spread of COVID in a state without mask mandates. He bullies businesses to operate his way, or face consequences, be they cruise companies that want to sail their ships with vaccinated people or Disney’s embrace of gender diversity. Or, with the “anti-woke” bill he’s soon expected to sign, any employer who make white people uncomfortable with multicultural training.

And he has unlawfully taken it upon himself to draw congressional districts in Florida that shamelessly disenfranchise Black voters.

All of those features of the fascist Florida that DeSantis is carefully fashioning in his image have garnered headlines as far as Britain and turned the former unknown congressman into a national figure.

No doubt about it, the title of worst governor for civil rights goes to our very own Ron DeSantis.

Let’s hope Abbott isn’t jealous and taking notes.