The DeSantis Deception
It's hunting season against MAGA, and its new face is Ron DeSantis
Written by Rev Laskaris
Ron DeSantis recently (which was of no surprise) announced his presidential bid for the 2024 election, peculiarly on a Twitter space hosted by David Sacks, and endorsed by Twitter CEO, Elon Musk. Though, the implications of this have not thoroughly been investigated, and the psyop that is Ron DeSantis has severely lacked investigation. With Biden running for re-election, it seems that the MAGA movement must decide who their candidate will be, which could decide their fate as a movement.
Ron DeSantis’ Neocon Insanity
DeSantis, who represented Florida's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018, has always openly demonstrated himself as a typical establishment Republican Neocon. Some of the most blaring examples of this would be his career-long hawkish foreign policy endorsements, specifically against countries such as China, Iran, and DPRK— along with his open endorsement for the continued financing and recognition for the State of Israel. For starters, take a look for yourself at Ron DeSantis’ Twitter page (@GovRonDeSantis [1]), and keyword search “Israel”— to which you will find an assortment of Pro Israel sentiments. In fact, he even once proclaimed himself as “the most pro-Israel governor in the country” [2], saying: “When I took office, I promised to make Florida the most pro-Israel state in the United States, and we have been able to deliver on that promise…" [3]. Ironic enough, just days after announcing his bid for the presidency, he reveals that he will be visiting Israel for the second time [4]. Though, DeSantis’ support for Israel does not begin with becoming Governor but originates during his time in the House of Representatives. Such examples would be recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel in both 2015 [5], and 2017 [6]. DeSantis’ support for Israel even goes as far as to lending large scale military support, such as in 2013 [7], and 2018 [8] His overly pro-Israel stance often is tied with his openly anti-Iran stance, recently even saying that Iran’s supposed “pursuit of nuclear weapons” is an “existential threat” to Israel [9], though the contrary would be true, since Iran has continuously reconfirmed its ‘fatwa’ against building nuclear weapons [10]. Such a Fatwa proclaims that the capabilities of nuclear weapons are Haram, and forbidden in Islam.
In reality, Iran could have developed Nuclear Weapons decades ago, yet DeSantis still expresses this talking point in order to virtue signal to the Neocon establishment and Israeli lobby, which has been influencing American foreign policy for decades.
Besides, why is Israel allowed nuclear weapons, but Iran is not? This is a question no Neocon can ever address and outlines the hypocrisy that is the Western Empire.
Netanyahu himself expressed similar concerns about Iran and nuclear weapons, once famously predicted in 2012 that Iran would obtain enough fissile material to make a bomb [11]. He even used a silly graph to try and show how close Iran supposedly was.
Netanyahu was so sure of his prediction, that he even argued that it would be accomplished by the summer: “The bomb chart showed percentage progress toward acquiring enough fissile material to make a bomb. Netanyahu said the Iranians were 70 percent of the way there and drew his now famous red line at the 90-percent threshold, a milestone he predicted would be reached sometime next spring or summer.” It has now been over a decade later, and still no signs of the bomb!
With that being said, the question must be asked—Why does DeSantis peddle such similar lies about Iran as Netanyahu? Look no further than where DeSantis likes to meet his donors and who these donors are. Such donors as Miriam Adelson - widow of the now deceased Israel lobbyist & business magnate Sheldon Adelson - who was a former top financial backer in 2020, recently meeting with DeSantis in Jerusalem [12], along with a few other GOP donors, such as Larry Mizel. DeSantis on this trip even had the opportunity to meet with the Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, and Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the same trip/meeting, DeSantis touted his Pro-Israel credentials, such as stressing his opposition to the 2015 nuclear Deal with Iran, claiming “Iran with a nuclear weapon will create an unprecedented threat in the region. If you combine their radical ideology with nuclear weapons, it will be an existential threat to Israel and a threat to America. [13]” In typical fashion, DeSantis' virtue signaled the myth of Iran's nuclear weapons. DeSantis also made no mention of issues affecting the Palestinians on the same visit.
DeSantis’ Neocon insanity does not end with Israel/Iran, but also boils over to his views about China, Russia, DPRK, Syria, and a few others—along with his position on Ukraine and NATO. Even as recently as September of 2022, DeSantis took executive action to address “threats” posed by China, Russia, Iran, DPRK, & other ‘hostile nations. [14] The article goes on to say “Governor Ron DeSantis announced executive action and legislative proposals to address threats posed by the Communist Party of China and other hostile foreign powers in cyberspace, real estate, and academia. These measures will curtail the nefarious intentions of all seven countries on Florida’s list of countries of concern, making it more difficult for China, Cuba, Russia, Iran, DPRK, Syria, or Venezuela to engage in espionage or influence operations within Florida’s borders and preventing purchases of agricultural land and lands surrounding military bases by those governments or their agents.” Along with “From server farms to farmland, the Communist Party of China has been worming its way into our nation’s”.
Yet, such claims about China, or any other “hostile” country supposedly buying up American agriculture couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, “Chinese companies own less than 1% of the total private American agriculture land, with the majority of foreign holders being close US allies” [15].
To picture this, China is not even in the top 10 Foreign owners of Agricultural Land in the United States [16].
This peddling of typical Neocon talking points about China is nothing strange in regard to any established GOP hack, yet in the case of DeSantis, he combines traditional GOP establishment foreign policy talking points with MAGA-style populist rhetoric, creating a deadly combo for the ruling establishment to weed out Trump, split his base, and domesticate MAGA back onto the side of the State. He attempts to take the form of MAGA, but in essence, falls back upon his Neocon ways. He is not a populist, he is the establishment. Hence, in Trumpian fashion, he has been rightly nicknamed by many as Deep-State DeSantis.
To highlight DeSantis’ flip-flopping abilities, and his grift for MAGA support, look no further than his position on Ukraine, Russia, and NATO. While as a congressman, DeSantis prioritized Ukraine, even wanting to send weapons to Ukraine [17]. Going as far as to “urging then-President Barack Obama to do so as a deterrent to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe – a position at odds with his statements this week questioning the United States’ involvement in the conflict [18].”
DeSantis has gone from all out supporting Ukraine, to now attempting to rhetorically take the Trump/MAGA position on the conflict. Though, even with his extreme attempt to take the MAGA position on Ukraine, sometimes slips in a few establishment talking points or flip-flops.
Shortly after the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, DeSantis would go on to call Russia an “Authoritarian gas station attendant”, and state that sanctions on Russian energy would “hit 'em where it hurts [19]”. Similarly, Bernie also described Russia as an “authoritarian petrostate”, and that “[we need] to deny authoritarian petrostates the revenues they require to survive [20].” DeSantis fits right in with the establishment’s view on gas-producing states, which have always been under the radar of the US Government & establishment deep state as prime targets for interventions, sanctions, and coups. He even described himself as “guys like me who are more of the Reagan school that’s tough on Russia as kind of throwbacks to the Cold War [21]”. Calling himself a Reagan type of guy should come to no one’s surprise, seeing how DeSantis was a major supporter of Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, such as voting in favor of the resolution that called for “Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and voted on legislation authorizing $68 million in aid to Ukraine and codifying sanctions on Russia”, which later passed in the House and a similar bill was later signed by Obama [22], he also voted to “sanction Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the annexation as well as provide economic assistance to Ukrainians [23]”.
This would explain why even liberal news outlets are promoting Ron DeSantis as an alternative to Donald Trump [24, 35] seeing how his foreign policy often aligns with that of the liberal establishment. Trump on the other hand has always been a hardliner, discussing pulling from NATO even [25], which even raised the worry of mega-criminals such as John Bolton [26]. Trump even claimed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine conflict in one day, which included refusing to say who he would want to win [27]. Obviously, from the perspective of the United States’ deep-state empire, which has dumped infinite amounts of resources into Ukraine—not caring who wins or doesn’t is pretty serious for the US government to deal with, and such a perspective will obviously never be supported by any institutions of Government, making Trump a type of dangerous & uncontrolled rogue character within politics.
With Trump being such a hardliner, GOP mega-donor Hal Lambert has chosen to urge Trump to drop out of the presidential run and has instead chosen to endorse DeSantis. Hal Lambert claimed, “We have a candidate in Ron DeSantis that can win, that has a record, that's conservative, that's the next generation [28].” Though this track record he speaks of is nothing more than that of a Neocon GOP puppet. Lambert also reveals what we all know, “I mean, he's the former president and yet basically half of the party would prefer someone else [29].”
Donors are not the only people Trump often conflicts with, but even with people within the Government itself. Trump’s position on Iran reveals this, as Trump wanted to ease sanctions on Iran, while Bolton offered pushback for such a position [30]. Bolton was a key contributor to a more “maximum pressure” campaign, while Trump felt used on the Soleimani Strike, even arguing that “Israel did not do the right thing [31]”. In the ongoing political persecution of Donald Trump, investigators have released an audio recording, in which an intentionally underreported bombshell was revealed that it was General Mark Milley who pushed for war with Iran against Trump’s wishes [36]. While Trump sometimes conflicts with Israel, it was always DeSantis who attempted to push Trump into a more pro-Israel foreign policy position. DeSantis would go as far as to criticize Trump for "…failing to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem…”, and even argued that he had to “cajole Trump to make the move” [32]. Other examples would include when DeSantis pushed for Trump “to recognize Israel’s authority over the Golan Heights, which Trump would eventually do two weeks prior to Israel’s April 2019 election” [33].
It seems at every angle, whenever Trump steps out of line on what is the “norm” for the United States foreign policy, Trump will receive backlash, even from those within his party. Even recently, when Trump congratulated the Kim Jong Un and the DPRK on Truth Social, he received negative feedback from establishment GOP hacks, including DeSantis himself [34].
DeSantis and Guantánamo Bay
Mansoor Adayfi, a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay, recalls his stay at Guantánamo Bay, and importantly, the presence of DeSantis at the facility. [1]
Adayfi: “In 2006, when DeSantis was there, it was one of the worst times at Guantánamo. The administration, the guards, all of them were the worst. They cracked down on us so hard. When they came to break our hunger strike, a team came to us. The head of the team, he was a general. He said, “I have a job. I was sent here to break your fucking hunger strike. I don’t care why you are here. I don’t care who you are. My job is to make you eat. Today we are talking. Tomorrow there will be no talking.” The second day, they brought piles of Ensure and they started force-feeding us over and over again.”
The interviewer then explains what “Ensure” is, that being a thick milky nutritional shake, typically hard to drink.
Adayfi continues…
“Yes, and Ron DeSantis was there watching us. We were crying, screaming. We were tied to the feeding chair. And he was watching. He was laughing. Our stomachs could not hold this amount of Ensure. They poured one can after another. So when he approached me, I said, “This is the way we are treated!” He said, “You should eat.” I threw up in his face. Literally on his face.”
He further adds to the point by saying…
Adayfi: “They used to restrain us in that feeding chair. They tied our head, our shoulders, our wrists, our thighs, and our legs. They put some kind of laxative in the feeding liquid. We were shitting ourselves all the time. Then we were moved to solitary confinement—really cold cells. It was like five times a day. It wasn’t feeding. It was just torture. Five times a day. You can’t possibly handle it. They just kept pouring the Ensure. In one week, they broke all the hunger strikers. And he was there. All of them were watching. They also used to beat us. And if we screamed or were bleeding out of our nose and mouth, they were like, “Eat.” The only word they told you was “eat.” We were beaten all day long. Whatever you were doing—they just beat you. Pepper spray, beating, sleep deprivation. That continued for three months. And he was there. He was one of the people that supervised the torture, the abuses, the beatings. All the time at Guantánamo.”
Interviewer: “So Ron DeSantis was actually supervising torture, beatings? He was supervising these force-feedings?”
Adayfi: “I’m telling Americans: this guy is a torturer. He is a criminal. He was laughing. And he was there to ensure we were treated humanely.”
Interviewer: “He was laughing?”
Adayfi: “Yes, they were looking at us, laughing because we were shitting ourselves. I was screaming and yelling. When your stomach is full of Ensure you can’t breathe. And you are throwing up at the same time. I was screaming. I looked at him and he was actually smiling. Like someone who was enjoying it.”
And finally adding…
Adayfi: I remember when we were talking about the noise in the night. We were talking about the vacuums, the generators, the fans, and everything. And they brought more stuff.
Interviewer: You told DeSantis this and then they increased the noise?
Adayfi: They increased the noise. And also the food, for example. We told him we don’t eat meat. What the guards did after that is they mixed all the food with meat.
Interviewer: And that’s another thing you told DeSantis?
Adayfi: It’s not just that. Medicine. Clothing. Treatment. Sleeping. The desecration of the Qur’an. Everything. We talked to him. When they were force-feeding us, he was smiling. Looking at us as trash.
Interviewer: You told me there was a resistance tactic there, of splashing administrators? Splashing them with your own feces? But you didn’t use this tactic often?
Adayfi: Only the worst of the worst got splashed.
Interviewer: DeSantis?
Adayfi: Yes.
Ron DeSantis has attempted to deny such involvement at Guantánamo Bay [2], but it does not change the fact that according to Retired Colonel Michael Bumgarner, commander of the Joint Detention Group at Guantánamo during DeSantis’ service there, DeSantis would have “…had very, very intimate knowledge [of the conditions at the camp]”, and that “He would’ve had face-to-face contact with them — he would’ve known them intimately, their backgrounds and all [3].”
DeSantis was very well aware of the conditions and nature of the camp, seeing how the camp was a hot topic for debate in the early 2000s, and whether or not any of the government actions there were morally okay.
Even within his book “The Courage to Be Free”, DeSantis argued that the possibility of going to Guantánamo Bay was a key factor in his decision to enlist in the military in 2004 [4].
DeSantis: “One recruiter told me that the assumption was that the Iraq campaign would be over relatively quickly, and that there would be a need for military JAGs to lead prosecutions in military commissions of incarcerated terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. That turned out not to be what happened, but it seemed plausible at the time and also seemed like a good opportunity to make an impact.”
I’m no speculator myself, but if I were taking bets, DeSantis being “innocent” sure as hell would not get my banking.
DeSantis against Trump
As mentioned earlier, DeSantis, while being a career-long Neocon, has recently presented himself as a Trump-type figure, but without “the drama”. He even pitched this line when courting donors. [1]
“Ron DeSantis, at a series of private dinners in recent weeks, has intensified his pitch to conservative donors that he’s better suited than Donald Trump to advance their agenda in the 2024 presidential race.”
DeSantis and their staff even argue that they can win the Republican majority, while again, pitching the “drama-free Trump” pitch.
“DeSantis and his senior campaign staff argue he can potentially win — or, at least, woo — roughly 70% of Republican voters, who either never wanted Trump in the first place, or who voted for him but now want new leadership. They expect roughly 30% of Republican voters to steadfastly support Trump regardless of what he says or does, giving him a potential edge should the primary become crowded.”
DeSantis also argued that he could last 8 years, rather than Trump’s 4.
“Implied in DeSantis’ message to donors, too, is that he could serve as president for eight years, whereas Trump is term-limited to just four years.”
DeSantis’ grift to be Trump runs in unison with the fact that DeSantis himself told donors privately that he believes Trump cannot win the 2024 election. [2]
“You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,” Mr. DeSantis told donors on the call, organized by the super PAC supporting him, Never Back Down. “Biden, Trump and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him.”
DeSantis continues in saying that Trump has the right policies, but the wrong values.
“Mr. DeSantis quoted a voter he had talked with at an event in Iowa as saying, “You know, Trump was somebody, we liked his policies but we didn’t like his values. And with you, we like your policies but also know that you share our values.”
DeSantis would go on to argue that only he can actually get the job done and that Trump often times fell short.
“When we say we’re going to do something, we do it, and get it done,” Mr. DeSantis said of his approach in the state, an indirect contrast with Mr. Trump, whom some Republicans have criticized for unfinished work when he was president.”
Though, as we have shown already, DeSantis has the support of the establishment, while Trump has had an open and private struggle with the very establishment that DeSantis spent his career serving.
DeSantis argues that he will get the job done that Trump never did, though in reality is signaling to his donors that he will continue the typical Neocon line, by refusing to be a burden on the very establishment that Trump causes “drama” for. DeSantis is the typical Republican win ticket, and it’s Trump who gets in the way of their business-as-usual politics.
MAGA, as a working-class movement, built its large and mighty movement off of the fact that it is anti-establishment…
After all, MAGA wants to:
Dismantle the public education system [3]
Cut entitlement programs [4]
Balance the budget [5]
Reduce the number of federal employees [6]
Defund the FBI and other Intelligence agencies [7]
The goal of DeSantis is to put trust back into MAGA in regard to their view of government, while Trump’s anti-establishment rhetoric is often viewed as incompetency by those who claim that there is a “democrat case for DeSantis” [8].
The fate of MAGA is that of which promises to kill off the government, and DeSantis tells them that the establishment is their friend.
The writing is on the Wall—DeSantis is no friend of MAGA!
References cited by section
“Ron DeSantis' Neocon Insanity”
[1] https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis
[2] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article220017410.html
[3] https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-743915
[4] https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/28/ron-desantis-israel-trip-00089153
[5] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/62?s=3&r=316
[6] https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/257?s=5&r=113
[7] https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-resolution/98?s=2&r=640
[8] https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5141?s=2&r=11
[9] https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/politics/desantis-jerusalem-speech/index.html
[12] https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/desantis-adelson-gop-donors-israel-dinner
[13] https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/desantis-israel-credentials-speech-jerusalem-2024-bid
[15] https://www.fdiintelligence.com/content/news/us-farms-grow-fearful-of-foreign-investors-82240
[16] https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/foreign-ownership-of-u-s-agricultural-land/
[17] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/politics/ron-desantis-supported-ukraine-russia-kfile/index.html
[18] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/politics/ron-desantis-supported-ukraine-russia-kfile/index.html
[19] https://twitter.com/wflajb/status/1499058512260911110?s=46&t=ZdWk8q-hnpBsEtQ16vETFA
[20] https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-statement-on-u-s-response-to-russia/
[21] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/politics/ron-desantis-supported-ukraine-russia-kfile/index.html
[22] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/politics/ron-desantis-supported-ukraine-russia-kfile/index.html
[23] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/politics/ron-desantis-supported-ukraine-russia-kfile/index.html
[24] https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1535884800334213120
[25] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html
[31] https://www.axios.com/2021/12/15/trump-soleimani-strike-netanyahu-israel
[35] Why Liberals Should Hope Ron DeSantis Beats Donald Trump (nymag.com)
[36] Milley Personally Wrote Iran Invasion Plan, Pushed Trump to Attack – PJ Media
DeSantis and Guantánamo Bay
[1] https://harpers.org/archive/2023/03/ron-desantis-force-feedings-guantanamo-bay-laughing/
[3] https://account.mcclatchydc.com/paywall/subscriber-only?resume=272722190&intcid=ab_archive
DeSantis against Trump