If the news reports are accurate, Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis will announce his presidential campaign later today on Twitter with an assist from Elon Musk.
I’m not sure how successful this strategy will prove to be in creating a winning image among independent or swing voters, since Musk is almost as divisive a figure as DeSantis’s primary rival for the Republican nomination — Donald Trump.
Also, only a small portion (~20 percent) of the U.S. adults use Twitter in the first place.
On the other hand, since he took over the social media platform, Musk has touted Twitter as a “free speech” platform, by which he means free speech for the extremist right-wing voices he favors.
This in all likelihood is why DeSantis is making his big announcement in this manner — in order to make his case directly to Trump’s base. Unless he can get their support, he’s unlikely to win the nomination.
At the moment, it is hard to envision DeSantis beating Trump at his own game, but then again, Trump’s manifold legal problems may yet end up sidelining him and leaving the GOP field open for the taking. There are numerous indications that Trump will be indicted, perhaps multiple times, quite soon.
My hunch is that this is exactly what DeSantis is preparing for — a badly wounded Trump, fighting for his political survival and also from ending up in prison — and a weakened party needing to find an alternative candidate for 2024.
In that sense, this is a logical move. His plan is to be the next in line…
LINKS:
Pro-Ukrainian Russian partisans advance into Russia’s Belgorod region in surprise raid (Yahoo)
Republicans say little progress in debt ceiling talks with White House (Reuters)
Biden Has No Good Options in Debt-Ceiling Fight (WSJ)
Kevin McCarthy, Joe Biden Negotiations May Be Nearing Breakthrough (Newsweek)
This week will be a test for the entire rationale for Joe Biden’s presidency (Independent)
Special counsel eyeing Trump overseas business: reports (The Hill)
U.S. Intelligence Building System to Track Mass Movement of People Around the World (Vice)
California's Newsom faces tough question: Who would replace Feinstein? (AP)
With AI, Bill Gates sees the end of Google Search and Amazon (Quartz)
Bing is now the default search for ChatGPT (Verge)
Microsoft is bringing an A.I. chatbot to data analysis (CNBC)
OpenAI is exploring collective decisions on AI, like Wikipedia entries (Reuters)
Europe’s new AI law threatens US firms (The Hill)
Gen Z is ‘caught in a whammy between COVID and ChatGPT,’ and middle managers are too burned out to realize it (Fortune)
Researchers review AI advantages in drug research and development (Phys.org)
ChatGPT's impact is already showing up in job postings —with six-figure implications (BizJournals)
The First Social-Media Babies Are Growing Up—And They’re Horrified (Atlantic)
Scientists say they have found a chapter of the Bible hidden under a section of text for more than a thousand years (BusinessInsider)
Seniors are flooding homeless shelters that can’t care for them (WP)
Hundreds of new species discovered in this remote part of the world, researchers say (ABC)
DeSantis Caught Sneaking Into Matinée of “Little Mermaid” (New Yorker)
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