Ron DeSantis Positive About Defeating Biden But Loses Voters' Trust As They Back Trump

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis yet again alluded to his White House goal in a recent, ambitious interview with Piers Morgan. He implied that defeating reigning President Joe Biden does not seem like a far-fetched target. The Republican governor also said that he won't focus on Donald Trump, but on Biden whom he believes hasn't done right by the country.

DeSantis's comments, as reported by the New York Post, came a day before Monmouth University released its poll Tuesday, which showed that Republican-backing respondents' faith had faltered in the Florida governor, and Trump had gained a small lead among other Republican candidates in a hypothetical Republican primary.

"I'm running against Biden," DeSantis said, preceded by the "if I were to run." He is yet to directly announce his bid to the White House and is expected to do so end of spring. For now, DeSantis is continuing to support the possible vs probable narrative surrounding his 2024 moves.

"Like [Trump and I] are competing for the Republican, potentially, I get that, but ultimately you know the guy I'm gonna focus on is Biden because I think he's failed the country. I think the country wants a change. I think they want a fresh start and a new direction, and so we'll be very vocal about that," he said.

At one point, DeSantis was asked if he could beat the current president whose approval rating ticked up to 42% at the beginning of this month, the highest since last June. "I think so," he responded, citing his sweeping win in the midterms as the reason. For the unversed, DeSantis won his reelection by the largest margin for any governor to have served Florida in the past 4 decades.

"I won with independents by 18 points," he said, adding, "and so that will be the same formula that we would take, and honestly forget about me, I think anybody should take the formula like that nationally. You can't win with just Republicans."

DeSantis said it is integral to win with independents and he managed to do so, adding that he was able to convince Democrat-backing voters in Florida who were not "woke." He also called attention to the budget surpluses recorded in the Sunshine State when the federal government was running into a debt estimated at $31 trillion. Florida announced a $21.8 billion budget surplus in 2022.

DeSantis has established himself as the poster child of anti-woke. He has cracked the whip on several woke businesses in Florida, has banned certain books from schools, and went after digital currency Sunday, saying that the federally controlled Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) "is the most recent way the Davos elites are attempting to backdoor woke ideology like Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)."

Anti-ESG advocates want to stop corporations from following ESG principles, Heated reported. Elon Musk and DeSantis have supported the anti-ESG movement.

In December, Florida pulled $2 billion in retirement funds from "woke" organization BlackRock in the largest anti-ESG disinvestment.

In his interview, DeSantis said, "we have really fought against the woke ideology." Without naming anyone, the Florida governor said societies, currently governed by mayors and prosecutors who believe in being woke have "decayed" as a result of being "governed by a woke agenda." He said the policies that won him the reelection, will work when he runs for the White House. "Some common sense, some leadership, some courage and being right on the issues I think could go a long way," he added.

The Florida governor has harbored huge dreams, some would say, rightly so. However, his way to the Oval Office is not expected to be smooth, as per the Monmouth survey. It showed that 41% of respondents said they want Trump to win the GOP nomination, compared to 27% who wish for it to go to DeSantis. Trump's lead is a major improvement given that he tied with DeSantis at 33% in the same poll last month.