Ron DeSantis’ reaction to the news of Donald Trump’s indictment was one big stunt—but in the end, the former president denied the Florida governor his big moment.
On this week’s episode of Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss how Trump’s decision to fly to New York instead of hunkering down in Mar-a-Lago to face his historic arraignment had the markings of a political scheme—one which stopped DeSantis from making his own big patriotic stand against the charges.
DeSantis initially said he would not be “involved” in the case (while taking an apparent swipe at Trump) but then changed his tune, tweeting “Florida will not assist in an extradition request.”
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“I find it really funny that Ron DeSantis was basically willing to cause a constitutional crisis to defend Trump,” Sommer says.
“Essentially, if he [Trump] wants to hunker down at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida state police will protect him … and then Trump just goes, ‘I'll go back.’”
According to Sommer, “Trump really sort of denied DeSantis their big moment.”
Weill says Trump is relying on the spectacle of the show to drum up support—after reports suggested Trump was offered the opportunity to appear via Zoom.
“He’s always been a showman. This is a guy who knows that this is a spectacle. He lives for drama and so of course he wasn’t going to hunker down to Mar-a-Lago. He’s going to go back to his old stomping grounds and make a scene.”
Then, national political reporter for Semafor, David Weigel, joins the podcast and weighs in on the latest Trump drama.
The arraignment “is something that even many Republicans before they built their careers around Donald Trump predicted would probably happen if he ever continued in politics,” Weigel says, adding that Trump “had made so many decisions that were legally specious that he was going to get caught in one of them.”
However, Weigel said he is “surprised” by the Republican response, given the Stormy Daniels case “is the one that a lot of people who don’t like Trump think is the flimsiest.”
Plus! In the podcast’s “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts discuss “15-minute cities” and how the idea has become twisted in the right-wing media.
Listen, and subscribe, to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
