Ron DeSantis tries to reboot White House campaign after Twitter ‘DeSaster’

The Florida governor has sought to turn the focus on his opponents after his interview with Elon Musk descended into farce.

Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican White House race, mocked rival Ron DeSantis. Picture: AFP

Ron DeSantis sought to reboot his presidential campaign on Thursday (Friday AEST) after technical glitches on Twitter overshadowed the Florida governor’s long-awaited announcement that he is to run for the White House.

DeSantis, 44, gave a series of interviews to conservative radio shows after his much-hyped Twitter livestream announcement with Elon Musk on Wednesday was widely ridiculed. The platform crashed repeatedly for almost half an hour, prompting President Joe Biden and Donald Trump to join those mocking DeSantis’s campaign launch as a “DeSaster”.

In an interview with the radio host Erick Erickson on Thursday, DeSantis sought to regain the initiative, saying the Twitter event with Musk had been “an interesting opportunity” and insisted he did not regret the experiment. “I’m glad we did it. I definitely think we got more buzz and more interest as a result,” he said. “They just had so many people that swarmed it, that it just basically melted the system.”

Seeking to turn the focus on his opponents, DeSantis took another swipe at Trump, criticising the “culture of losing” in the Republican Party, an allusion to the former president’s defeat to Biden in 2020 and the underwhelming performance of Trump’s hand-picked candidates in November’s midterm elections.

“There’s really no substitute for victory. We can’t have any more excuses, we’ve got to get it done,” DeSantis said.

The governor touted his record in Florida, where he won by a landslide to secure a second term as governor in November. He has introduced conservative legislation that plays to the culture war gripping America’s political right.

“I was able to take a swing state … and win it by 20 points. That’s the direction we need to go to be able to win nationally,” DeSantis said. “I’m the only one that’s taken all these great conservative principles we all share … and making them a political reality in Florida.”

In another indirect dig at Trump’s record as president, DeSantis suggested he would reshape the US along the same lines as Florida if he won the White House next year.

“There’s a lot of talk of, oh, we’re going to do all these things and then Republicans oftentimes don’t convert on it,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anyone in the modern history of the party that’s been able to transform a state the way we have.”

DeSantis attacked Biden’s handling of the economy and pledged to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, a linchpin of the president’s re-election campaign, which allocated billions of dollars towards green energy and fighting climate change. The governor said his goal was a “two-term project” to overhaul America along conservative lines: “We will spit nails from day one. I will use all the authority I have to bring about a really strong, bold agenda.”

DeSantis will hit the campaign trial next week, returning to Iowa, the first state to vote in the Republican primary season next year. He will then visit 12 states in four days.

Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican race, mocked his rival, reposting videos on his Truth Social platform that derided DeSantis’s Twitter experience. One video showed a rocket falling over and exploding on the launch pad. “Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!” the Trump campaign said.

The Times