Casey DeSantis: The ’secret weapon’ that could destroy Donald Trump

A powerful new female presence in US politics, who has been described as a “secret weapon”, may spell trouble for Donald Trump.

When Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced his presidential bid last month, his wife, Casey, was not far from his side.

Mr DeSantis, 44, is seen as Donald Trump’s closest rival for the Republican nomination, a conservative with similar policies to the former President but with less political baggage.

But it’s his wife who is also garnering headlines — and she has been labelled everything from his “biggest asset” to his “not-so-secret weapon”.

“She is not only his closest and smartest adviser, she is his secret weapon,” Jared Moskowitz, a former DeSantis administration ­official who is now an elected Democrat, enthused to The New York Times.

Vanity Fair likened her to “the most famous Republican political spouse in recent memory, Nancy Reagan,” noting that “DeSantis consults her on everything from hiring decisions and media appearances to policy positions and wardrobe choices”.

Warm, charismatic, and confident on the microphone — the former TV broadcaster is seen as an integral force in her husband’s presidential bid, humanising a man who has been criticised by some as lacking in personality.

She also considered Mr DeSantis’ chief political adviser and nicknamed the co-governor in Florida. She is understood to be copied into every one of his emails.

“I get asked all the time: who is Ron DeSantis?” she said in a video made for her husband’s Florida’s re-election campaign last year.

She then paints a portrait of a loving father to their three young children Madison, Mason and Mamie, and a pillar of strength when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. She has been cancer-free since March 2022.

“He was there to fight for me when I didn’t have the strength to fight for myself. That is who Ron DeSantis is,” the 42-year-old says, her voice quivering with emotion.

Casey and Ron DeSantis on their wedding day. Picture: Facebook / Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis describes meeting his wife as ‘life’s most fortuitous moment’. Picture: Facebook / Ron DeSantis

The devoutly Christian couple met on a golf course, tying the knot in 2009 at the Orlando-based Walt Disney World theme park.

“I kept looking over my shoulder because I wanted the bucket of balls that somebody had left because my swing was so terrible,” she told First Coast News in 2018 of their first meeting.

“I needed as much practice as I could possibly get. As I’m looking over behind me, Ron is over there. He thinks I’m looking at him.

“I was really looking at the balls. Long story short we started to talk and that’s how we met.”

In his latest book, The Courage to be Free, Mr DeSantis described meeting his wife as “life’s most fortuitous moment”.

The pair on the campaign trail with two of their three children, Madison and Mason. Picture: Facebook/ Ron DeSantis

But over the last month a different, more disturbing, image of Mrs DeSantis has been doing the rounds.

A profile in Politico quoted anonymous former DeSantis staffers, alleged insiders and Democratic strategists who accused the first lady of Florida of being “blindly ambitious” in an effort to help her husband become the next US president.

The 42-year-old was described as “paranoid” and “vindictive” while quoting a Trump operative who likened her to “Lady MacBeth.”

“He’s a leader who makes political decisions with the assistance of his wife, who was elected by nobody, who’s blindly ambitious,” said a former DeSantis administration staffer in the profile. “And she sees ghosts in every corner.”

“He’s a vindictive motherf**ker. She’s twice that,” said a higher-up on one of his campaigns. “She’s the scorekeeper.”

Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor, described Mrs DeSantis as her husband’s “biggest asset and his biggest liability”.

‘He’s a vindictive motherf**ker. She’s twice that’, one former adviser says of the pair. Picture: AFP

The DeSantis family greet the crowds after Mr DeSantis’s successful Florida re-election bid last year. Picture: AFP

“I’ve heard from staffers frustrated that they think the governor’s made a decision, he talks to her, comes back, the decision is the opposite or different,” he said. “The sad part is I think she’s very smart. I think she’s very talented. But she also needs to realise if they want to play on this stage, they need serious help.”

DeSantis supporters have been quick to publicly rubbish the profile.

Nate Hochman, a speechwriter for Mr DeSantis, responded while referring to a Politico article last year that covered “how gender roles can still be weaponised in political attacks” against women such as former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and First Lady Jill Biden.

“Politico, November 2022: Comparing women in politics to Lady Macbeth is a sexist trope,’’ Hochman tweeted.

The incredulity with which some media outlets cover the possibility that a husband and wife might actually have a healthy, loving relationship says a lot more about the media than it does about the subjects of their coveragehttps://t.co/d8GJd3dSOs

— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) May 21, 2023

Mr DeSantis will need to make up ground if he is to become the next president — sitting a distant second in the polls for the Republican primary.

The latest polling does not look encouraging for him.

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll last week showed Mr Trump extending his lead to 28 points, up from 20 points in early May.

This week the former vice-president Mike Pence and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie entered the Republican race, reducing the possibility of a single strong challenger for Mr Trump.

Those who don’t think he can make up ground on his main rival should take note that he won the Florida vote by just 27,000 votes in 2018. In 2022, he won by 1.5 million votes.

Perhaps Mr DeSantis’ telegenic and “blindly ambitious” ‘secret weapon’ will be key.

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