Florida is Republican Trumpland central so it’s no wonder that Donald Trump’s mini-me governor Ron DeSantis wants to be the ex-president’s rightful heir. Ever since his election in 2018, DeSantis has been throwing his weight around by dazzling the GOP with amazing Trump-like stunts: Defying public health guidelines smack in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, thus keeping Florida lockdown free, Vanity Fair reports.

He also did other stunts — like promoting Trump’s 2020 election lie in May and signing a restrictive voting rights bill while appearing live on Fox News. Oh, and last month he sent Florida law enforcement agents to Texas to “secure [the] southern border.”

All of which makes DeSantis seem remarkably Trump-like. All he needs is a pull-string so he can say things like “windmills cause cancer,’ or that Hurricane Florence is “one of the wettest we’ve seen from the standpoint of water.”

This, of course, means DeSantis is out-Trumping Trump, at least according to at least one conservative poll, where he has an approval rating of 74 percent, compared to the former president’s, which stands at 71 percent.

Western Conservative Summit 2021 non-partisan approval voting poll results:

1. Ron DeSantis – 74.12%
2. Donald Trump – 71.43%
3. Ted Cruz – 42.86%
4. Mike Pompeo – 39.35%
5. Tim Scott 35.58%

30 candidates polled. Democrats & Republicans.

Full results: https://t.co/2a7Z5gVVwU

— Centennial Institute (@CentennialCCU) June 20, 2021

But with the tragic collapse of the Surfside condominiums, DeSantis’s MAGA-land hopes have hit a bump. This is because DeSantis is showing what appears to be a backbone by putting the management of the catastrophe ahead of Trump’s continual need for blind faith. According to a June 30 report by the conservative Washington Examiner, DeSantis and team were angry that Trump planned to hold a MAGA rally while the search for survivors was ongoing. DeSantis, in fact, didn’t attend the rally. And on July 1 DeSantis appeared with President Joe Biden, praising him for the federal government’s response.

One can imagine that didn’t sit well with Trump.

Trump played a large role in DeSantis’s becoming governor, but as Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman notes a handful of GOP insiders are predicting Team Trump and Team DeSantis are on a collision course as the 2024 GOP field comes into focus.

“There’s going to be a blow-up,” said one noted Republican. “Trump f*cking hates DeSantis. He just resents his popularity,” one source told Sherman.” Trump’s new spokesman, asked for comment, responded as you might expect, by saying “Governor DeSantis has showed great respect.”

But Trump was in many ways a catalyst for then-Congressman DeSantis in 2018, who drew Trump’s support during the 2018 gubernatorial primary by “hanging out at Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel,” Sherman writes.

But as soon as he became governor, DeSantis drew Trump’s ire by pushing back, which he generally did in private.

“I reported last year that DeSantis rejected Trump’s plea to close Florida’s beaches as the pandemic raged. DeSantis has also built an impressive fundraising operation of his own that gives him leverage in his budding rivalry with Trump.”

The Miami Herald reports DeSantis has built a substantial war chest as his own PAC raised nearly $14 million in April alone, with hedge fund billionaire contributing $5 million.

Sherman notes, however, that if DeSantis decides to run in 2024, he’ll need to do so carefully.

“According to a source, DeSantis has told donors that he won’t openly campaign in Iowa or New Hampshire before his 2022 Florida reelection campaign,” he writes. “But he’s clearly in a strong position. ‘Heading into 2024, DeSantis is primed to push Trump off the throne,’ former Trump adviser San Nunberg told me. ‘Trump surely sees this coming and will ultimately offer Government DeSantis a joint ticket.”

But Trump will also see DeSantis’s meeting with Biden as a slight. While he likely intensely dislikes DeSantis, he doesn’t have any love for Biden and still views himself as the rightful president.

It’s looking quite like 2024 is going to be a bumpy ride. Hope y’all have your seat belts engaged when the time comes.

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