• He recently throttled the Walt Disney Co. in its desperate federal lawsuit that claimed DeSantis and the Legislature punished the company for political speech. Says the governor, “I would like to see an accounting from some of the people who last year were trying to say that Disney ‘outmaneuvered’ Florida.” Hmmmm. Wonder who he’s talking about.
• Pro-Palestinian student groups seeking to prevent their expulsion from public university campuses, suggested by DeSantis, saw their lawsuits tossed by a federal judge for lack of standing.
• Intersectionally, at the end of an appearance in Central Florida’s rural Hardee County to discuss the expansion of broadband access Friday, DeSantis veered hard into rumors the Biden administration would recognize a Palestinian state as a way out of the current Middle East unrest. “You have Hamas attack Israel, one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern times. More Jews killed on Oct. 7 than at any day since the Holocaust. And yet the response is going to be to recognize a Palestinian Arab state? I mean, you gotta be kidding me with this,” DeSantis said.
• Thursday, at a lectern bedecked with an orange sign proclaiming Stop the Invasion in bold black capital letters, DeSantis announced he is deploying members of the Florida National Guard and State Guard to Texas. The intent: Assist Lone Star State efforts to stanch the flow of illegal migration, an unending flood which the Biden Administration aggressively enables.

'WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING?': Gov. Ron DeSantis scathes Biden administration's border policies

"These illegals don't even need photo ID! They can fly on our planes without photo ID. You talk about putting the American people last […] It is a total farce." pic.twitter.com/rt1uwz7jne

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) February 1, 2024

• Noting the geographic connection between California and Mexico in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday night, a twinkle-eyed DeSantis reported he’d be willing to extend the favor of additional manpower under his command to assist Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom, if he’d only say the word. After all, said DeSantis, “[W]e need all states to have secure borders.”
• DeSantis even got a cheery — and utterly unexpected — boost from CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller Friday morning. Our David Strom extrapolates the implications for our Northern friends, but the moment that surely made DeSantis’ day was Miller’s revelation on the difference between New York and Florida: Immigrant thugs come south merely to spend the riches plundered in New York City, then high-tail it back. Why not stay and pillage Floridians? “Because there,” NYPD detectives told Miller, “you go to jail.”
• Finally, at the risk of having buried the lede, there’s glad news at the Governor’s Mansion on the animal companion front: Family DeSantis adopted a rescue pooch from an animal shelter, a blond, short-haired somethingorother promptly named “Liberty,” because, winked First Lady Casey DeSantis, “The Free State of Florida was a bit long.”

Excited to welcome the newest addition to the family!

We rescued her from the animal shelter and named her Liberty (The Free State of Florida was a bit long!) 😊 pic.twitter.com/tNFk05LxOg

— Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) February 2, 2024

These recent events found conservative consultant and unabashed DeSantis fan Spence Rogers shaking pompoms.

Ron DeSantis is so based he won two lawsuits and sent 1k troops to the border all in the same day.

— Spence Rogers (@SpenceRogers) February 2, 2024

And why not? 

It’s all just DeSantis being DeSantis. Getting stuff done. Needling rivals. Condemning bad guys. (Yes, if only his genius included a magic wand for redirecting hurricanes so property insurance rates would drop, like, yesterday.)

Lots of residents of Magadonia are noticing, and not in a happy way. Why does DeSantis keep talking about national and international issues? Why doesn’t his endorsement include going shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump backup singers Vivek and Senator Tim? And why, oh why, hasn’t he quashed the talk of running a shadow campaign?   

Maybe because any debt DeSantis owed Trump and MAGA has been repaid with usurious interest? Owned by Soros. Backed by Bushies. Killed his sister. Noted pedophile. Strutted around in lifts. Served as the model for Bobblehead Ron. Meatball. DeSanctimonious. And Casey faked her cancer.

For all of that, DeSantis, man of principle, suspended gracefully and gave his nod to a fellow who lacks curiosity, deplores humility, and believes only what he believes this very minute.

As Washington Examiner contributor Kimberly Ross notes: 

It’s fair to say DeSantis benefitted from Trump’s endorsement and support back in 2018. This hardly qualifies him for lifetime allegiance to the former president. Anyone who demands that of him, whether voters or grifter influencers, is swept up in a cult of personality and deserves mockery. DeSantis’s unapologetic leadership in the Sunshine State is his own doing, not Trump’s. He has accomplished much and is not indebted to the former president for a single thing.

In the announcement suspending his campaign, DeSantis said he would honor his pledge to support the GOP nominee. This is understood to mean Trump. But unlike former candidates Doug Burgum, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), DeSantis is not currently engaged in any grotesque and public displays of bootlicking. The reason is obvious: He is focused on running the state he was elected to govern.

Let the man have his fun.