Ron DeSantis officially begins presidential campaign alongside Twitter owner Elon Musk

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign has started disastrously in a live Twitter conversation with the site’s owner Elon Musk. See what happened

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s US presidential campaign failed to launch in a disastrous Twitter chat with the platform’s billionaire owner Elon Musk that repeatedly crashed before he could even speak.

The 44-year-old, who is considered Donald Trump’s top rival for the Republican nomination for next year’s election, chose to announce his White House run in a live audio conversation on Twitter Spaces on Thursday.

But as hundreds of thousands of users tuned in, the event cut out multiple times and then had to be switched off after about 20 minutes without Mr DeSantis saying a word.

When it was rebooted, Mr Musk blamed the technical difficulties on his own popularity, before starting a conversation that focused more on Twitter than the Florida Governor’s presidential plans and featured several speakers joining to praise the controversial tycoon.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce his White House run on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr dubbed it a “DeSaster”, while Democratic National Committee spokesman Anmar Moussa said: “In true Ron DeSantis fashion, his presidential launch was quite literally not ready for primetime.”

But Mr DeSantis’s campaign claimed they “broke the internet with so much excitement”.

Moments before the problem-plagued chat, the Florida Governor launched his long-awaited campaign in a Twitter video in which he declared he was “running for president to lead our great American comeback”.

“Decline is a choice, success is obtainable, and freedom is worth fighting for,” he said.

“Truth must be our foundation and common sense can no longer be an uncommon virtue. In Florida, we proved that it can be done. We chose facts over fear, education over indoctrination, law and order over rioting and disorder.”

“We held the line when freedom hung in the balance. We showed that we can and must revitalise America. We need the courage to lead and the strength to win.”

Before Mr DeSantis was able to speak on the Twitter Spaces event, co-host David Sacks said it was “kind of melting the servers”.

Mr Musk reassured listeners that Twitter engineers were “reallocating more server capability to be able to handle the load”, and said that he was “very excited” to welcome Mr DeSantis before the conversation dropped out again.

Once it returned, Mr DeSantis was asked why he chose to launch his campaign on the platform. He hailed Mr Musk as a “free speech advocate” during what he called a concerted effort by other tech giants and the US government to “stifle dissent”.

The mogul replied: “Twitter was indeed expensive but free speech is priceless.”

After an hour of conversation, which covered the Florida Governor’s Covid response, border policies and his war with Disney, Mr DeSantis said: “We should do it again, I think this was fun … This is a great platform.”

I’m running for president to lead our Great American Comeback. pic.twitter.com/YmkWkLaVDg

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) May 24, 2023

Mr Sacks added: “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and I think we finished really strong.”

Mr DeSantis’s popularity had fallen away significantly in recent weeks as Mr Trump solidified his lead among Republican voters, despite becoming the first president to be charged with a crime – over hush money paid to a porn star during the 2016 election – and being found liable for sexually assaulting a writer in a New York department store almost 30 years ago.

An analysis of national polls by RealClearPolitics put support for Mr Trump to claim the Republican nomination at 56.3 per cent, with Mr DeSantis trailing at 19.4 per cent.

Mr Trump posted several new attack videos during Mr DeSantis’s campaign launch, and complained that “his collar is too big!” in the Florida Governor’s announcement video.

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked about Elon Musk saying he would vote for him if he ran for president in 2024, he responded saying, "I welcome support from African Americans. What can I say?" pic.twitter.com/5MCMW5vIRD

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) June 15, 2022

The former president was banned from Twitter in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021, and while Mr Musk reinstated his account after taking over the social media platform last year, Mr Trump is yet to resume tweeting.

Mr Trump has relentlessly attacked Mr DeSantis for months as “Ron DeSanctimonious”, describing him as being “totally unelectable”.

The former president has solidified his position as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in a chaotic period in which he became the first president to be charged with a crime – over hush money paid to a porn star during the 2016 election – and was found liable for sexually assaulting a writer in a New York department store almost 30 years ago.

Elon Musk will host Ron DeSantis on Twitter for the expected announcement. Picture: AFP

An analysis of national polls by RealClearPolitics currently puts support for Mr Trump among Republican voters at 56.3 per cent, with Mr DeSantis trailing at 19.4 per cent.

South Carolina senator Tim Scott was the latest candidate to jump into the increasingly crowded field earlier this week, alongside Mr Trump’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Other potential contenders include Mr Trump’s vice president Mike Pence as well as Chris Sununu and Chris Christie, two vocal critics of the former president who have served as state governors.

Originally published as Ron DeSantis officially begins presidential campaign alongside Twitter owner Elon Musk