Rather than operating from weakness by conceding the premise he lost, Trump’s stolen-election lie turns the subject into a partisan loyalty test. Pence is going to flunk that test. Ron DeSantis has tried to evade it, stoking generalized concerns about election integrity and refusing to say whether Joe Biden legitimately won the election but declining to overtly endorse Trump’s lie.
Reporters have given up trying to get a straight answer out of him, but if Trump makes this a central dispute in the 2024 primary, his dissembling will become more difficult. At some point, his slipperiness will make him look like a weasel. DeSantis has a very strong chance to defeat Trump — I would even call him the favorite — but Trump’s fixation on 2020 is probably DeSantis’s greatest liability.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member