In advance of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s entry into the race, Trump allies are reportedly prepared to mount a withering assault on the governor’s efforts to save the lives of seniors. One “Trump ally” told the New York Times that they were stockpiling “news B-roll of DeSantis presiding over vaccinations of elderly people.”

In essence, Trump’s allies plan to accuse the governor of supporting the Trump administration’s policies with too much gusto. The Trump White House encouraged the development of the vaccine, yes, but it also created programs and incentives designed to maximize uptake of the vaccine among the elderly, vulnerable population as rapidly as possible. “The ultimate goal here,” said Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar of a program that allowed pharmacies to vaccinate seniors in long-term care facilities, “is to make getting a Covid-19 vaccine as convenient as getting a flu shot.”

Even if Trump’s Republican rivals on the 2024 debate stage are themselves scared of the kooks who turned on the vaccine, the protectionists who believe economic growth is a zero-sum game, and the isolationists who see American extroversion as the root of all the world’s evils, they don’t have to argue against Trump’s policies in office. They need only ask Donald Trump to defend his own record, which he now apparently believes to be a failed one.

[One has to wonder whether Trump is even serious about a new campaign for the nomination. This kind of easily exposed argument seems more aimed at just building fundraising lists. To the extent that Team Trump can find such “B-roll” material, other candidates will have a gold mine of “A-roll” material of Trump extolling the vaccines, extolling Fauci, supporting the shutdowns, etc etc etc. — Ed]