Jason Cohen 🇺🇸
@JasonJournoDC
🚨NEW: Jake Tapper suggests Biden ran for reelection because he "spent most of 2023 convinced that Donald Trump was going to jail"🚨
@DailyCaller
9:47 PM · May 20, 2025
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66.1K
Views
https://x.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1925005421544124865
New intelligence suggests Israel is preparing possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, US officials say
By Jim Sciutto, Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand, CNN1/2
Updated: 6:01 PM EDT, Tue May 20, 2025
The US has obtained new intelligence suggesting that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, even as the Trump administration has been pursuing a diplomatic deal with Tehran, multiple US officials familiar with the latest intelligence told CNN.
Such a strike would be a brazen break with President Donald Trump, US officials said. It could also risk tipping off a broader regional conflict in the Middle East — something the US has sought to avoid since the war in Gaza inflamed tensions beginning in 2023.
Officials caution it’s not clear that Israeli leaders have made a final decision, and that in fact,there is deep disagreement within the US government about the likelihood that Israel will ultimately act. Whether and how Israel strikes will likely depend on what it thinks of the US negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.
But “the chance of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility has gone up significantly in recent months,” said another person familiar with US intelligence on the issue. “And the prospect of a Trump-negotiated US-Iran deal that doesn’t remove all of Iran’s uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely.”
The heightened worries stem not only from public and private messaging from senior Israeli officials that it is considering such a move,but also from intercepted Israeli communications and observations of Israeli military movements that could suggest an imminent strike, multiple sources familiar with the intelligence said.
Among the military preparations the US has observed are the movement of air munitions and the completion of an air exercise, two of the sources said.
But those same indicators could also simply be Israel trying to pressure Iran to abandon key tenets of its nuclear program by signaling the consequences if it doesn’t — underscoring the ever-shifting complexities the White House is navigating.
CNN has asked the National Security Council and the Israeli prime minister’s office for comment. The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not comment.
Trump has publicly threatened military action against Iran if his administration’s efforts to negotiate a new nuclear deal to limit or eliminate Tehran’s nuclear program fail.But Trump also set a limit on how long the US would engage in diplomatic efforts.
In a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in mid-March, Trump set a 60-day deadline for those efforts to succeed, according to a source familiar with the communication. It has now been more than 60 days since that letter was delivered, and 38 days since the first round ofv talks began.
A senior Western diplomat who met with the president earlier this month said that Trump communicated the US would give those negotiations only weeks to succeed before resorting to military strikes. But for now, the White House policy is one of diplomacy.
That has put Israel “between a rock and a hard place,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior intelligence official specializing in the region. Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu is under pressure both to avoid a US-Iran deal that Israel doesn’t view as satisfactory, while also not alienating Trump— who has already broken with the Israeli prime minister on key security issues in the region.
“At the end of the day, the Israeli decision-making is going to be predicated on US policy determinations and actions, and what agreements President Trump does or does not come to with Iran,” Panikoff said, who added that he did not believe Netanyahu would be willing to risk entirely fracturing the US relationship by launching a strike without at least tacit US approval.
https://lite.cnn.com/2025/05/20/politics/intelligence-israel-possible-strike-iran-nuclear-facilities
All of this is speculation and gossip
2/2
Iran at its weakest in decades
Iran is in its weakest military position in decades, after Israel bombed its missile production facilities and air defenses in October, combined with an economy weakened by sanctions and Israel’s decimation of its most powerful regional proxies. Israel, US officials say, sees a window of opportunity.
The US is stepping up intelligence collection to be prepared to assist if Israeli leaders decide to strike, one senior US official told CNN. But a source familiar with the Trump administration’s thinking told CNN theUS is unlikely to help Israel carry out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites at this moment, short of some major provocation by Tehran.
Israel does not have the capacity to destroy Iran’s nuclear program without American assistance, including midair refueling and the bombs required to penetrate the facilities deep underground, a need that is also reflected in previous US intelligence reports, according to a source familiar with the matter.
An Israeli source told CNN that Israel would be prepared to carry out military action on its own if the US were to negotiate what this source described as a “bad deal” with Iran that Israel cannot accept.
“I think it’s more likely they strike to try and get the deal to fall apart if they think Trump is going to settle for a ‘bad deal,’” said the other person familiar with US intelligence. “The Israelis have not been shy about signaling that to us … both publicly and privately.”
A US intelligence assessment from February suggested Israel could use either military aircraft or long-range missiles to capitalize on Iran’s degraded air defense capabilities, CNN previously reported.
But the same assessment also described how such strikes would only minimally set the Iranian nuclear program back and wouldn’t be a cure-all.
“It’s a real challenge for Netanyahu,” Panikoff said.
For now, the US talks with Iran are stuck on a demand that Tehran not enrich uranium, a process which can enable weaponization, but which is also necessary to produce nuclear power for civilian purposes.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading the US delegation, told ABC News over the weekend that Washington “cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability” under an agreement. “We’ve delivered a proposal to the Iranians that we think addresses some of this without disrespecting them,” he said.
Khamenei said on Tuesday that he does not expect negotiations with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program to “reach a conclusion,” calling the US demand that Iran not enrich uranium a “big mistake.” Iran insists it has a right to enrich under the United Nations’ Treaty on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and says it will not relinquish that right under any circumstances.
Another round of talks may take place in Europe this week, according to Witkoff. Both the US and Iran have put proposals on the table, but after more than a month of the talks facilitated by Oman, there is no current US proposal with Trump’s sign-off, sources said.
US intelligence agencies in February issued warnings that Israel will likely attempt to strike facilities key to Iran’s nuclear program this year, CNN previously reported.
It has “consistently been the Israeli position that the military option is the only option to stopping Iran’s military nuclear program,” one US official noted.
https://lite.cnn.com/2025/05/20/politics/intelligence-israel-possible-strike-iran-nuclear-facilities
Jesse Watters
@JesseBWatters
News anchors are profiting off NOT reporting the news. Is this the new business model? A never-ending cycle of cover-ups and tell-all’s, lies and confessions.
8:19 PM · May 20, 2025
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133.4K
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13:51
https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/1924983428522426379
Jesse Watters
@JesseBWatters
==EXCLUSIVE: Johnny asks
@Comey to sign his seashell.==
8:30 PM · May 20, 2025
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576.8K
Views
0:57
https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/1924986227029115335
Charlie Kirk
@charliekirk11
This week, I'm in Britain, the place that helped birth free speech throughout the world, but is now becoming a totalitarian country.
From
GB News
10:57 AM · May 20, 2025
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412.3K
Views
2:02
https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1924841802852708356
Democratic challenger defeats Pittsburgh mayor in a primary after a clash over the party's future
Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor defeated Mayor Ed Gainey in the city’s hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary, The Associated Press projected.
May 20, 2025, 10:13 PM EDT / Updated May 21, 2025
Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor defeated Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey in the city’s hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary, The Associated Press projected Tuesday,after a race that garnered national attention as a notable proxy fight between progressives and center-left Democrats.
With more than 96% of the vote in, O'Connor led Gainey 53%-47% in the nominating contest.
"Thank you, Pittsburgh," O'Connor said on X. "We built this campaign with and for the people of this city, neighborhood by neighborhood. I’m proud to be your Democratic nominee for Mayor. I’m ready to get to work, and I’m grateful to have you with me as we take the next steps forward, together."
Tuesday’s election was one of the first major Democratic primaries since the 2024 election in which the party’s progressive and center-left wings faced off.And the mayoral race followed an election cycle in which Democratic governance of cities took center stage in Republican campaign messaging.
In a statement, Gainey said that while the defeat "isn’t what we hoped for, our people-powered movement in Pittsburgh is stronger than it’s ever been before thanks to every person who was part of this campaign to build a city for all."
"And that means Corey O’Connor must be ready to carry forward the transformational progress the people of this city demand and that he promised in his campaign," Gainey added. "The progress my administration delivered on affordable housing, policing, and community investments set a new bar that Corey will be expected to build upon."
“From the bottom of my heart — thank you, Pittsburgh," his statement continued. "Let’s keep fighting for each other.”
Gainey and his allies painted O’Connor, the county controller and the son of a former mayor, as beholden to President Donald Trump and monied real estate interests, pointing to campaign donations from Trump backers and developers. The mayor, who was first elected in 2021, also pointed to drops in violent crime, local job growth and the city’s improved credit ratings to counter O’Connor, who portrayed Gainey as an unproductive mayor who’s failed at managing city finances, its police department, and on general quality-of-life fronts
O’Connor launched his campaign late last year, emerging as a favorite early on and raising more money than Gainey, though polling showed the race tightening as Election Day neared. Last month, both campaigns touted internal polling showing them with an advantage in the tough-to-model local race: Gainey’s campaign survey showed him up 7 points, while O’Connor’s showed him up by 4, though that was considerably closer than other polls his campaign touted earlier in the cycle that showed the challenger up double-digits.
Gainey, the city’s first Black mayor, won a contested primary in 2021, knocking off incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto in a three-way primary with a plurality of the vote.His win was part of a county-wide progressive advance, preceding wins by Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, among other candidates on the left who have won major offices in the area in recent years.
The Pittsburgh mayoral race elevated housing policy to the forefront of the local discussion.Gainey has sought to enact inclusionary zoning policies throughout Pittsburgh that require new developments to set aside at least 10% of units for affordable housing. Those policies currently apply to only a few neighborhoods, and O’Connor came out against making inclusionary zoning citywide policy.
Meanwhile, akey point of contention in the race focused on just how many affordable units have been or are being built in the city since the start of Gainey’s term as mayor.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democratic-challenger-defeats-pittsburgh-mayor-primary-clash-partys-fu-rcna207690
EMERGENCY DOCKET
SUPREME COURT REQUIRES CLERK TO COUNT VOTES BY LAWMAKER CENSURED FOR SOCIAL MEDIA POST ABOUT TRANSGENDER ATHLETE
BY AMY HOWE
ON MAY 20, 2025
THE SUPREME COURT ON TUESDAY AFTERNOONREQUIRED THE CLERK OF THE MAINE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO COUNT VOTES BY A MAINE LAWMAKER WHO WAS CENSURED FOR A SOCIAL MEDIA POST ABOUT A TRANSGENDER ATHLETE AT A HIGH SCHOOL TRACK MEET IN THAT STATE. IN A BRIEF UNSIGNED ORDER, THE JUSTICES GRANTED A REQUEST FILED BY LAUREL LIBBY, A REPUBLICAN WHO REPRESENTS A DISTRICT IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE STATE,TO CLEAR THE WAY FOR HER TO VOTE WHILE HER APPEAL CONTINUES IN THE LOWER COURTS AND, IF NECESSARY, THE SUPREME COURT.
JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON DISSENTEDFROM THE COURT’S RULING. IN A FIVE-PAGE OPINION, SHE LAMENTED WHAT SHE CHARACTERIZED AS THE “WATERING DOWN OF OUR COURT’S STANDARDS FOR GRANTING EMERGENCY RELIEF,” CALLING IT “AN UNFORTUNATE DEVELOPMENT.”
THE EVENTS GIVING RISE TO THE DISPUTE BEFORE THE COURT BEGAN IN FEBRUARY,WHEN LIBBY PUBLISHED A FACEBOOK POST ON HER OFFICIAL LEGISLATIVE ACCOUNT THAT INCLUDED PHOTOS AND THE NAME OF A TRANSGENDER GIRL WHO HAD COMPETED IN, AND WON, THE POLE VAULT AT THE STATE TRACK-AND-FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP.
THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, RYAN FECTEAU, ASKED LIBBY TO TAKE THE POST DOWN, EXPRESSING CONCERN THAT ALLOWING THE POST TO REMAIN ONLINE COULD CREATE HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES.WHEN LIBBY DECLINED TO DO SO, THE HOUSE INTRODUCED A RESOLUTION TO CENSURE LIBBY, CONTENDING THAT HER POST VIOLATED THE STATE’S ETHICS CODE FOR LEGISLATORS. THE RESOLUTION ADDED THAT AS A RESULT OF THE POST, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT HAD HAD TO “INCREASE SECURITY AT THE SCHOOL CAUSING UNNECESSARY STRESS AND DISRUPTION TO OTHER STUDENTS, PARENTS, TEACHERS AND SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF AND THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY.”
THE RESOLUTION PASSED BY A PARTY-LINE VOTE OF 75-70.WHEN LIBBY REFUSED TO APOLOGIZE FOR HER VIOLATION OF THE ETHICS CODE SHE WAS BARRED UNDER THE HOUSE RULES FROM PARTICIPATING IN DEBATES ON THE HOUSE FLOOR AND FROM VOTING ON ISSUES THAT THE FULL HOUSE IS CONSIDERING.
LIBBY AND SEVERAL OF HER CONSTITUENTS WENT TO FEDERAL COURT, WHERE THEY CONTENDED THAT THEHOUSE’S CENSURE OF HER VIOLATED (AMONG OTHER THINGS) HER RIGHTS UNDER THE FIRST AMENDMENT, AS WELL AS DEPRIVING HER CONSTITUENTS OF A VOTE UNDER THE 14TH AMENDMENT. THEY SOUGHT AN ORDER REQUIRING FECTEAU AND THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE, ROBERT HUNT, TO ALLOW HER TO SPEAK AND VOTE ON THE HOUSE FLOOR.
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE MELISSA DUBOSE OF THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLANDDECLINED LIBBY’S REQUEST, HOLDING THAT THE CLAIMS AGAINST FECTEAU AND HUNT WERE BARRED BY LEGISLATIVE IMMUNITY – THE IDEA THAT LEGISLATIVE OFFICIALS ARE SHIELDED FROM LAWSUITS BASED ON THEIR OFFICIAL ACTIONS.
LIBBY THEN WENT TO THE U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE 1ST CIRCUIT, SEEKING ONLY AN ORDER REQUIRING HUNT TO COUNT LIBBY’S VOTES.BUT THE COURT OF APPEALS REJECTED THAT REQUEST, INSTEAD FAST-TRACKING LIBBY’S APPEAL AND SCHEDULING ORAL ARGUMENT FOR JUNE 5.
LIBBY CAME TO THE SUPREME COURT ON APRIL 28, ASKING THE JUSTICES TO INTERVENE.SHE TOLD THE JUSTICES THAT “HER THOUSANDS OF CONSTITUENTS IN MAINE” “ARE NOW WITHOUT A VOICE OR VOTE FOR EVERY BILL COMING TO THE HOUSE FLOOR FOR THE REST OF HER ELECTED TERM, WHICH RUNS THROUGH 2026,” ”INCLUDING THE STATE’S BUDGET” AND “HUNDREDS MORE PROPOSED LAWS,” SUCH AS ITS POLICY ON TRANSGENDER ATHLETES IN SPORTS. THE ORDER THAT SHE SEEKS, SHE SAID, “SIMPLY RESTORES THE STATUS QUO OF EQUAL REPRESENTATION” BY ALLOWING HER TO VOTE AGAIN.
HUNT URGED THE JUSTICES TO STAY OUT OF THE DISPUTE, EMPHASIZING THAT AN ORDER BY A FEDERAL COURT INTERVENING IN THE LEGISLATURE’S PROCESSES “WOULD BE CONTRARY TO THE POLICY OF INSULATING LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY FROM ‘OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE’ THAT UNDERGIRDS” THE SUPREME COURT’S CASES ON LEGISLATIVE IMMUNITY.”
IN A ONE-PARAGRAPH ORDER ON THURSDAY, THE JUSTICES GRANTED LIBBY’S REQUEST. AS IS ITS GENERAL PRACTICE FOR EMERGENCY APPEALS, THE COURT DID NOT EXPLAIN ITS REASONING.
IN HER DISSENT, JACKSON EMPHASIZED THAT THE KIND OF ORDER LIBBY WAS SEEKING – KNOWN AS AN INJUNCTION PENDING APPEAL – SHOULD BE ISSUED ONLY IN AN EMERGENCY, AND ONLY WHEN IT IS CLEAR THAT THE PERSON OR ENTITY SEEKING THAT ORDER HAS AN “INDISPUTABLY CLEAR” RIGHT TO IT.
(YES THE SC JUSTICE WOMAN KBJ, THAT CAN’T DEFINE WHAT A WOMEN IS, RENDERING HER VERDICT OF A TWEET WHERE A MAN PRETENDS TO BE A WOMAN, THINKS THE LEGISLATOR WOMAN SHOULD BE BANNED FROM LEGISLATION, BECAUSE SHE OPPOSED A TRANSGENDER MAN THAT WANTS TO WIN IN SPORTS AS A WOMAN.KBJ SHOULD BE BANNED FROM PARTICIPATION FOR ANY CASE THAT DEALS WITH WOMEN, SINCE SHE CAN’T DEFINE WHAT THEY ARE!)
HTTPS://WWW.SCOTUSBLOG.COM/2025/05/SUPREME-COURT-REQUIRES-CLERK-TO-COUNT-VOTES-BY-LAWMAKER-CENSURED-FOR-SOCIAL-MEDIA-POST-ABOUT-TRANSGENDER-ATHLETE/
Senators are unmoved by Johnson’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ pitch
The speaker cautioned Senate Republicans against making sweeping changes to the House bill.
JORDAIN CARNEY
05/20/2025, 3:35PM ET
Speaker Mike Johnson pitched Senate Republicans on the House’s megabill plan Tuesday. Not all of them were swayed by the overture.
Multiple GOP skeptics came out of the lunch meeting saying they planned to continue pushing for further changes to the party-line domestic policy bill — the latest sign that the bill’s challenges don’t end in the House.
“Exactly what he has told the media and his conference is what he told us,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters after the meeting. “The fact of the matter is, though, that we’re not just solving this problem.What good is having the majority if we don’t use it to return to pre-pandemic level spending?”
Mike Johnson, according to GOP senators who attended the lunch, cautioned Senate Republicans against making a significant rewrite of the House’s plan. He characterized parts of the plan, including the $1.5 trillion in spending reductions and the inclusion of a debt hike, as key parameters that Republicans will have to live with.
The speaker, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said,“basically said that conservatives just have to live with raising the debt ceiling $5 trillion or $4 trillion, which is an historic amount. And I’m one conservative who won’t live with that.”
The bill is expected to face a litany of changes once it gets to the Senate.There’s a group of GOP senators, including Johnson, who want much deeper spending cuts. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday “a lot of the issue in the Senate will be …does it have sufficient spending reforms.”
Other Senate Republicans are closely watching where House Republicans ultimately land on safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP, the program formerly known as food stamps. Though House Republicans backed away from far-reaching proposals to shift Medicaid costs to states, some Senate Republicans remain concerned about a provision that could affect how states finance their share of the costs.
“I’m concerned with what they’ve got in the bill currently,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said about the House-proposed changes.
Johnson told Senate Republicans Trump was “emphatic” in the meeting to not cut Medicaid benefits. (Trump himself put it in coarser terms, saying Republicans should not “fuck around with Medicaid.”)
But many Senate Republicans said it was unrealistic to expect that the bill would remain unchanged after coming across the Rotunda:“I think most House members understand that when it comes to the Senate we’re going to make changes — hopefully improvements,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/05/20/congress/johnson-woos-the-senate-00360400
Misleading headline
Rolling Stone
Kid Rock Distances Himself From His Own Bar After Reported Nashville Ice Raids
Larisha Paul
Mon, May 19, 2025 at 5:38 PM EDT
Kid Rock seems to have no problem with ICE conducting raids at his Nashville bar, Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse.Over the weekend, according to a story in the Nashville Scene, managers at the location sent home undocumented employees working in their kitchen during an evening rush to avoid raids. Rock is involved with the restaurant — according to a new tweet from Rock himself, largely in name only — while owner Steve Smith leads operations. Rock and Smith overlap in their support of Donald Trump and his immigration policies, despite relying on the immigrants who work in the restaurant.
“Clearly I do not have anything to do with day to day operations at my Honky Tonk – but it’s good click bait, I get it,” Rock said on X, responding to a headline that referred to the restaurant as the “next target for Trump’s sweeping ICE raids.” “That being said I 100% support getting illegal criminals out of our country no matter where they are. I also like President Trump want to speed up the process of getting GREAT immigrants into our country – LEGALLY! It’s that simple folks. But the below is not a juicy enough headline to get clicks and views.. in this day and age the truth often is not.”
On Saturday, an employee at one of Smith’s restaurants shared insight into how operations have changed since the increase in raids. Speaking with the Scene on condition of anonymity, they said: “We were already understaffed because of the ICE raids throughout the weekend.Then, around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, our manager came back and told anyone without legal status to go home. Events at the Ryman, Ascend, the Savannah Bananas’ baseball game all let out, and it was crazy busy. But there was no one in the kitchen to cook the food.”
In January, Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting America’s immigrant communities. One attempted to end birthright citizenship for children born to parents without at least one permanent-resident status, while another authorized all Department of Justice law enforcement officers to act as immigration officers.ICE raids across the country began almost immediately and have increased in intensity since. Immigrants without criminal records have been targeted, in addition to U.S. citizens being detained and deported.
Newark, New Jersey, mayor Ras Baraka was recently arrested at an ICE facility on a trespassing charge, while children who are U.S. citizens have been deported along with their immigrant parents. The Trump administration has shown a continued noncompliance with court orders mandating due process for migrants. At places like Kid Rock’s Nashville honky-tonk —regardless of whether its owner and namesake approve — employees seem to be looking out for the immigrants in their communities. Especially since no one else is.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kid-rock-distances-himself-own-213820543.html
Ron DeSantis’s fall from grace: ‘He’s completely crashed to the ground’
Florida governor stands isolated from Trump and is feuding with Republicans at home – is he drifting to irrelevance?
Richard Luscombe1/2
These are challenging days for Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who would have been king. Barely two and a half years since his landslide re-election and anointment as “DeFuture” of the Republican party in a fawning New York Post cover,he stands isolated from the national political stage, feuding with his once blindingly loyal Florida legislature, and limping towards the finish line of his second term with an uncertain pathway beyond.
It has been, in the view of many analysts,a fall of stunning velocity and magnitude. And while few are willing to completely rule out a comeback for a 46-year-old politician who was the darling of the Republican hard right until he dared to challenge Donald Trump for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, it is also clear that everything has changed.
“He’s completely crashed to the ground at this point and is certainly being treated like a more standard, average governor now,” said Aubrey Jewett, professor of political science at the University of Central Florida.
“He’s lost the ability to push things through. He’s lost that luster he had that at one time seemed like he could do no wrong in Republican conservative circles.He’s definitely come back down to earthand some of it is his own doingbecause if you govern with an autocratic style, that doesn’t usually make you a lot of allies.”
DeSantis’s once vise-like grip on Florida’s lawmakers has weakened, replaced by open dissent, bitter hostility and a hurling of slurs over a number of issues as the two Republican dominated legislative chambers try to reverse six years of passivity and reestablish themselves as a co-equal branch of government.
DeSantis, in the words of Florida’s Republican House speaker, Daniel Perez,has begun to tell “lies and stories that never happened”, and has become increasingly prone to “temper tantrums”.
The governor, meanwhile, hit back at what he sees as a “pathetic” agenda being pursued by the majority.He has also lashed out at their investigation of a charity scandalenveloping his wife, Casey DeSantis, as she mulls whether to run in next year’s election to succeed him when he is termed out of office in January 2027. (The Charity is very problematic and some shady things occurred.)
Some Republicans, including Perez,want to know how $10m of a $67m legal settlement intended for Florida taxpayersended up channeledthrough Hope Florida, a non-profit that Casey DeSantis founded, to political action committees operated by her husband’s allies to help quash ballot amendments last year on abortion and marijuana.
“At one point Caseylooked like she was going to be the heir apparent to Ron DeSantis and she was going to run, and he certainly seemed like he was trying to position her to do so,” Jewett said.
“That would extend his legacy and help keep him around for some more years, he can be the first husband and people would say he’s an equal partner or whatever. That would take away some of his lame-duck status.”
It is that drift towards political irrelevance, particularly on the national stage, that stings DeSantis the most, some analysts believe.(Don’t take on Trump Supporters and Trump, the guy that got you elected.)
If events had transpired differently, he could be sitting in the White House. Instead, the influence of the one-time prince of Maga (Trump’s make America great again movement)is limited to regular guest appearanceson Fox News, and “press conferences” he hosts around Florida almost on a daily basis to assail judges whose rulings displease him and expound his hardline positions on immigration enforcement, higher education and drag show performers.
More galling, Jewett says, is that DeSantis has seen himself eclipsed by rising newcomers in Trump’s firmament, notably vice-president JD Vance and Marco Rubio, the former Florida senator and current Secretary of State, both named by the president this month as potential successors.
“It’s notable that when Trump was asked who might follow him, he didn’t mention DeSantis at all,”Jewett said. “When DeSantis challenged Trump for the presidential nomination, it ticked Trump off and it ticked off a lot of Trump supporters, who up until then generally liked him. (He didn’t only take on Trump, he betrayed Trump with nasty rumors and non support when Trump was being persecuted.)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/20/ron-desantis-florida-governor-fall
2/2
“It came out while he was running thathe doesn’t have the great personalitythat a traditional politician has. He just didn’t seem well suited for shaking hands, eating hot dogs and kissing babies, the kind of typical American political things.It destroyed his air of invincibility.”
Other observers see the same aloofness and confrontational manner behind DeSantis’s fallings out with Republican erstwhile allies in Florida,and a reason whymany are rushing to support Trump-endorsed congressmanByron Donaldsfor governor even before Casey DeSantis has made a decision to run.
“I don’t know that they necessarily think Donalds is the greatest thing since sliced bread –I think it’s, ‘Well, we got to block Casey from getting in’,”said Michael Binder, professor of political science and public administration at the University of North Florida.
“The DeSantis-Trump feud appears to have mellowed but there are absolutely people in both camps,on both sides, that have not forgotten and will not forget. DeSantis’s political style in some ways is similar to Trump in that he makes a lot of enemies.The difference is Trump can make amends with enemies when it benefits him – think of Marco Rubio.
“With Ron DeSantis you don’t see that. Once you’re on the outs with DeSantis, you stay on the outs. They burn those bridges.”
DeSantis’s office did not respond to a number of questions submitted by the Guardian about the remainder of his term in office, or plans thereafter.
His predecessor as governor, Rick Scott, successfully challenged Democraticincumbent Bill Nelson for his US Senate seat in 2018 and remains an influential Republican voice in Washington. Such a pathway appears blocked for DeSantis, a former congressman who in January appointed Florida’s former attorney general Ashley Moody to Rubio’s vacant Senate seat for the duration of his term.
DeSantis would need to challenge a close ally who has already filed to defend it in the 2026 election.
Still, Jewett said, the final chapters of DeSantis’s political career are yet to be written.
“It doesn’t look good and his political prospectsare definitely more dim than they were, his road seems that much more difficult right now,” he said. (His whiny voice was intolerable, after months of hearing it, no one would vote for him.)
“But you just never know. One big wild card is how people view Trump in another year. It’s a decent assumption the Maga movement will continue and if Trump really falters then maybe DeSantis’s distance from Trump actually ends up being a positive in the longer run.(Never will that happen, just reading this article brings up bad feelings)
“Even if he doesn’t get too much more accomplishedin the next year and a half,he had a five-year run that was unprecedentedin pushing through a very conservative agenda and changing Florida from the most competitive battleground to a heavily Republican state. So yeah, he’ll remind everyone of all the things he did that they liked on the Republican side.”
(DeSantis will never be back, his wife is evil and greedy and he allowed her to influence him along with Major donors that are Trump Haters. His big mistake was biting the hand that gave him the Governorship in the first place. And his total lack of support when Bidan tried to take Trump down. That cannot be forgiven by patriots. He could come out and sincerely apologize, but it still won’t work. When MAGA sees the betrayal, like others think, if he did it once, he will do it again. The Guardian is not wrong. If you ever read Sundance’s articles on the betrayal be DeSantis on Trump, it would make you mad as hell, this article is mild compared to what Sundance revealed; Jekyll Island stuff.)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/20/ron-desantis-florida-governor-fall