This is why it represents such a great test of this aspect of presidential character to face down Trump within a Republican primary, where his own power base resides. DeSantis does not have the luxury of a Democratic candidate, who can simply treat Trump as hostile and despised: He relied on Trump’s fans and supporters to win his own first election in Florida (with Trump’s endorsement), and will need many of them to win the nomination.

Yet if it comes to an open confrontation in which both men run for the same office, DeSantis can also not afford to take the strategy preferred by so many Trump opponents in 2016: namely, holding his fire while Trump attacks him, and hoping somebody else will take him down. Even if that seems like a workable early strategy, DeSantis has gotten this far by building a brand as a fighter who doesn’t back down from anybody, and he should remember the sage words of Mike Tyson: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

The true coup would be if DeSantis can bluff or persuade Trump not to run at all. It will be DeSantis’s job to convince Trump that Ron DeSantis doesn’t have a Donald Trump problem; Trump has a Ron DeSantis problem.