Has DeSantis got what it takes to beat Trump?

The Florida governor's Republican nomination campaign began with a Twitter fiasco-but experts warn against writing him off

- David Smith 

Never work with animals, children or egotistical space billionaires. That's a lesson Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida learned the hard way when he used Elon Musk's Twitter Spaces social media platform to announce his run for US president.

Thousands of listeners were greeted with long silences, odd snatches of music and the sound of Musk, wouldbe kingmaker of the American right, muttering that "the servers are straining somewhat". The glitch was soon being described as a "DeSaster", one of the most embarrassing campaign fiascos in memory.

No one was more gleeful than Donald Trump, who regards DeSantis as his principal rival for the Republican nomination in 2024. But for those in the party who crave an alternative to the disgraced former president, it fuelled disquiet about his putative rival's big match temperament - and encouraged them to seek other options. No one is writing DeSantis off, but he enters the race weakened and in a wide field of lesser candidates that Trump now dominates.

"DeSantis's launch was awful; Trump's comments are nuts," tweeted Bill Kristol, a founding director of Defending Democracy Together who served in the Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush administrations.

"Doesn't every normal Republican elected official and donor think the party can (and should!) do better?" The Grand Old Party has been transformed since the moment that Trump staged a comparatively lo-tech campaign launch by trundling down an escalator at Trump Tower in New York in 2015. The celebrity businessman soon energised grassroots supporters, shook the Republican establishment and prevailed in the primary election against divided opposition.