Ron DeSantis (44) is now officially entering the ring for the Republican candidacy for 2024.

DLNews Politics 2024:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has to catch a massive poll deficit - Tesla and Twitter boss: Americans want “reasonably normal presidents.”

It's fixed: Ex-President Donald Trump (76) has to arm himself against a strong opponent within the Republican Party! Ron DeSantis (44) will officially announce his candidacy for the White House in the 2024 election today at 6 p.m. Where? At a live event on Twitter, moderated by Tech Titan and still Twitter boss Elon Musk (51).

Means: Elon Musk will present his most dangerous challenger to Trump.

Does the multi-billionaire support the Florida governor? When asked whom he favored for the 2024 election, Elon Musk told The Wall Street Journal he and most Americans want someone in office who is "reasonably normal" - a jab at the erratic ex-President Donald Trump.

A conversation between DeSantis and Musk is planned on Twitter's audio platform "Twitter Spaces."

DeSantis answers reporters' questions after a keynote address.

Does he have a chance against Trump?

The past few months have been a political rollercoaster for the former military lawyer. Last November, he caused a sensation with his brilliant re-election victory as Florida governor. In the rain of confetti, he suddenly seemed like a new beacon of hope for a party in which many are tired of Trump. DeSantis, 32 years his junior, stood for the future of the conservatives.

But Trump turned everything around, furiously and effectively: He started a mud fight, taunted his opponent as a "hypocrite," and blasphemed that DeSantis wasn't "ready" for the Oval Office. At the time, Trump fans said: "DeSantis still has much time; now it's Trump's turn again!"

That's how many saw it: According to a "Morning Consult" poll, Trump is far ahead in the field of Republican candidates with 61 percent. And DeSantis? A meager 18 percent.

From the beginning of 2024, partisans must decide who will be the presidential candidate in the primary elections. A turbulent election battle with a dozen candidates is expected among the Republicans. For the Democrats, the choice of President Joe Biden (80) is more of a formality.

In any case, DeSantis hopes that the tide can turn. He wants to beat Trump with these three trumps:

He relies on his winning image.

Despite a disappointing election night for Republicans, DeSantis emerged as one of the few winners. While many blamed Trump, voters rewarded DeSantis for his pandemic policy that avoided lockdowns in the sunshine state.

His argument against Trump now: his rival embodies an "era of losing." The party must free itself from this. In fact, since Trump's sensational victory in 2016, there have been nothing but setbacks: the party lost the congressional majority in 2018 and the White House in 2020. And in 2022, there was only a slim majority in the House of Representatives.

“Like Trump – but younger and saner.”

Another hoped-for winning formula in the fight for conservative voters: DeSantis is like Trump. But he is younger, and he is sane.

DeSantis has so far followed a tight legal course. He wants to win some of the Trump-loyal party bases on his side. And in Florida, he rages as a warrior against the progressive Woke ideology. His slogan: "This is the state where woke dies!"

The Disney World entrance near Orlando: DeSantis declared war on the corporation.

His anti-woke fight against the liberal entertainment giant Disney is now world-famous. Although DeSantis got married at Disney World near Orlando in 2009.

However, the showdown with Mickey Mouse was more in the direction of their own goal: Business-friendly Republicans resent the political leadership of a company.

A clean man with a "Kennedy family" for the Oval Office

DeSantis wants to starkly contrast Trump's ongoing scandals with his career and telegenic family - the former TV presenter and breast cancer survivor Casey (42) and the minor children Madison, Mason, and Mamie!

DeSantis with wife Casey and children after his election victory last November.

The Harvard graduate with southern Italian roots became SEAL Team One's legal advisor in 2004. He served in the terror prison at Guantanamo and during the Iraq War. In 2012 his political career started in Congress. Then, in 2018, she led him to the governor's office in the Florida capital, Tallahassee.

But his secret weapon is his wife, Casey: Florida's First Lady has already been nicknamed "Queen of Camelot 2.0", a reference to the legendary Kennedys. A source told the New York Post: "The whole family reminds me of the Kennedys - they look confident and comfortable in front of the camera..."

And DeSantis has another arrow in his quiver: With 110 million dollars, he currently has the bulging war coffers of all applicants. But a problematic election campaign awaits, even a tightrope act: He has to catch up with the usual belligerent Trump and assert himself in a rapidly growing field of candidates.

DeSantis is "Trump's only serious competitor in the struggle for the nomination, even if it seems like a hopeless endeavor right now," political scientist Jonathan Cristol says. After all, DeSantis could score points in further expected charges against the ex-president.

However, according to Cristol, there is a political shortcoming: DeSantis finds it difficult to show "normal human emotions." Or that he enjoys the "everyday things of politics." Recent setbacks in the Disney war are also scratching the image of a winner.

The fact that so many Republicans are stepping into the ring at the moment illustrates the weakness: he may be Trump's most dangerous opponent, but he seems vulnerable in this role...