The professional provocateurs of The Lincoln Project are throwing some hot grease on the simmering embers of the 2024 Republican presidential race.
A new ad from the Never Trumper troupe juxtaposes former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Ron is running for President … and with Fox’s help, he will beat you,” asserts a new spot released Wednesday.
Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson was unambiguous in explaining what the latest LP creative, “Sad!,” conveys.
“Republicans in Washington and the Fox News echo chamber are having a hard time hiding their excitement over the ascension of Gov. Ron DeSantis as party leader,” Wilson said.
“Tune into Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News at any given hour of the day and you’ll see just who they think Republican voters should be listening to. Ron DeSantis is running away with the party Trump built, and so far there is seemingly nothing the weakened and fading Donald can do about it,” Wilson taunted.
The 60-second spot trolls Trump, with a female narrator saying “people are trying to forget about you … people you made … people like Ron DeSantis.”
“Without you, he’d be nothing,” the narrator says. “A loser.”
“Everyone says he’s bigger than you. Smarter than you. Thinner than you,” the narration continues, noting that DeSantis is now “on Fox all the time.”
The new ad is well-timed, as DeSantis is now attempting to downplay what has looked like a choreographed push for the White House that seemed to start after the November 2020 election.
The Governor dismissed a question about whether he will run for President in 2024 as manufactured “nonsense” Tuesday.
“All the speculation about me is purely manufactured,” DeSantis told reporters in St. Cloud. “I just do my job.”
“I hear all this stuff, and honestly, it’s nonsense,” DeSantis added about the “rumors.”
The rumors are national. A recent Vanity Fair piece depicted DeSantis as ambitious to such a degree that former President Trump allegedly “hates” him.
Despite what clearly is unmistakable national ambition, the Governor is telling people he has a timetable, per the reportage.
“DeSantis needs to walk a tightrope as he seeks to position himself for a 2024 run. 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,” Vanity Fair reporter Gabriel Sherman wrote.