His silence has been broken. Governor Ron DeSantis responded to a reporter’s question about the attacks being lobbed at him from former President Trump during a Tuesday press conference. For the first time, DeSantis addressed the issue and did so beautifully.

How did he do it? He answered by explaining why he thought he was getting attacked but he didn’t name any names or acknowledge any specific attacks. DeSantis is a chess player while Trump sticks with checkers. DeSantis was at Fort Walton Beach High School in the Panhandle. He explained that he is focused on “results and leadership” and had overwhelming success in his reelection bid. Who is going to argue with that?

Trump’s attacks? “It’s just noise.”

“I think what you learn is, all that’s just noise, and really what matters is, are you leading, are you getting in front of issues, are you delivering results for people and are you standing up for folks?” he said. “And if you do that, then none of that stuff matters.”

“One of the things I’ve learned in this job: When you’re leading and getting things done, you take incoming fire. That’s just the nature of it,” DeSantis said.

#BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis asked point blank about former President Trump's announcement tonight and the attacks he's received from the 45th President. pic.twitter.com/DH4MMBu4eD

— Forbes (@Forbes) November 15, 2022

You’ll notice that DeSantis does a not-so-humble brag about his historic victory and the fact that, as the top of the ticket, he turned Florida into a red state. He included the corporate media in his remarks. He said, “I roll out of bed in the morning and I’ve got corporate media outlets having a spasm over the fact that I’m getting up in the morning.” More pointedly, he said, “I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night.” He bragged about Republican victories across the state and the supermajority in the Legislature. Who better to point out this level of success than the man who worked hard to set the table for the last four years?

DeSantis never mentioned anyone else by name. He got in his jabs at the corporate media and their obvious bias against him. What he did prove is that he is a happy warrior. He’s running as Ronald Reagan 2.0 and that’s smart. Voters are tired of the ugliness of campaigns. We are experiencing a 1970’s kind of national malaise thanks to the ineptness of Joe Biden. Things aren’t great in Biden’s America and that really doesn’t have enough time to change before the 2024 presidential election. The rate of inflation, for example, is at a 40-year high, and it’s going to take some time to come back down. In the meantime, every time a voter shops for groceries or fills up her gas tank, she’s cursing Joe Biden and his economic policies.

Voters are looking to the future. DeSantis can clearly articulate policies and his goals while the former president uses his 2015 playbook to try and clear the playing field by dinging up potential opponents with ugly nicknames and mocking their wives. Does that play in 2022? We’re going to find out because Donald Trump is going to announce his intention to enter the GOP primary race tonight. DeSantis and any other Republican challenger has plenty of time to wait and enter the race, if they choose to, at a later time. Trump should wait until after the Georgia run-off on December 6 but he’s not one to consider what is best for the Republican Party, it’s always all about him. Trump wants the immediate gratification of the spotlight on this announcement, not on a run-off in Georgia.

DeSantis is always careful to credit others when he speaks about success. He’s not afraid to speak the truth and that’s important. He doesn’t pussyfoot around and doesn’t bother with false humility. Let Trump call him Ron DeSanctimonious. DeSantis has a fresh coat of Teflon on right now and that sort of nonsense just bounces off.

A new poll commissioned by the Republican Party of Texas shows a shift has occurred in the country’s largest red state. DeSantis is favored over Trump to run for president by 10 percentage points. That’s a shift – Trump was the clear favorite in October. The poll was of likely GOP primary voters.

The survey asked voters who are likely to participate in the 2024 Texas Republican primary election who they would vote for out of six Republican candidates including DeSantis and Trump. DeSantis was the top choice, with 43% of respondents saying they would vote for him if the primary election were held today. Trump came in second place with 32%. DeSantis’ support among the surveyed voters surged to 66% when they were asked about a situation in which Trump would decline to run in 2024.

In addition to Trump and DeSantis, the survey asked about support for four other potential candidates: former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former CIA director and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. These candidates received single-digit support from survey respondents. Neither U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who previously ran for the nomination against Trump, nor Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been considered a possible contender, was asked about in the survey.

DeSantis is doing the right thing. He’s keeping his powder dry and not getting in the gutter with Trump. He doesn’t have to. Yet. If he runs and it comes down to the two of them, which it very well may do, then he’ll have to decide how he wants to respond to Trump’s attacks. In the meantime, he’s golden. The cruelest thing he can do to Donald Trump is ignore him.