I receive a plethora of daily emails from everyone reference Trump and DeSantis, which I sometimes read and delete; however, I recv’d one yesterday from a gentleman who posts on the blog periodically. I read it twice. It’s long so you need a few free minutes to take it all in. It is a very well documented and written. It’s all fact, not fiction, or BS, but only one  opinion – his at the end. If you are having doubts as for whom you would voter in the primary, or the general election itself, read this article first before you decide. He gives credit where it’s due and criticism where it is deserved. Enjoy and learn.

His email said,

Hi Colonel:                                                                                                                                  I appreciated the article that you posted today regarding the military and Ron DeSantis. I live in Iowa, the first caucus State, and have written an analysis of my thinking regarding the choice of Trump or DeSantis. That analysis is attached to this email, in case you are interested. I’m hoping my thinking will affect some of my conservative friends.

Best wishes and many thanks for your blog,                                                        Bob 

Trump or De Santis-for whom shall we vote?

Donald Trump

Simply stated, the Republican Presidential nominee for 2024 will be either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis. No matter how much I like or dislike either of these guys, the reality is that, unless one of them is elected President in 2024, a Democrat will be President for four more years; and, it does not matter which Democrat as they are all horrible.

Therefore, the question is: should we nominate Trump of DeSantis? Let’s consider each of them.

Prior to his running for President and while he was initially seeking the Republican Presidential nomination, I was not a Donald Trump fan. He struck me as egotistical, vulgar, uncouth, and unprincipled.

When Tiger Woods’ wife discovered his serial infidelity, Trump’s sage advice was for Tiger to tell his wife that he could not be the husband and father that she and their children needed, and therefore he should spend the balance of his life playing golf and being a playboy. This is the advice and worldview of a fourteen-year old boy, not a mature, responsible man. It was not surprising to me that Trump was working on his third marriage.

His feud with Rosie O’Donnell was also off-putting, not that I took her side, but rather because his name-calling and abusive behavior was obnoxious and unnecessary.

Finally, during the primaries, I found his mean, personal, dishonest attacks against his Republican opponents to be disgusting. Referring to Ted Cruz, a decent and honest man, as ‘lying Ted’ or Marco Rubio as ‘little Marco’ made Trump look like a little man who was trying to make himself look bigger by cutting down others.

Notwithstanding his obvious personal shortcomings, it was also unclear what his political philosophy was, or if in fact he actually had one. For years he had supported both Republican and Democrat political candidates based upon his assessment of who could provide the most help to his business enterprises. There was no sign of any honorable principles in his personal, business, or political life.

After he won the Republican Presidential nomination and during the 2016 fall campaign, I referred to Trump and Hillary Clinton as ‘heart attack’ and ‘cancer’ respectively. She was ‘cancer’ insofar as she would continue to build a larger government that would continue to gradually suck the life and freedom out of our Country. He was ‘heart attack’ as one would never know if, based upon some ridiculous pretext or emotional outburst, he would launch or cause a nuclear weapon, start a war, or use his Presidential powers to destroy his real or perceived enemies.

During the campaign, Thomas Sowell, one of my favorite economists and political commentators, wrote a series of article on Donald Trump in which he documented Mr. Trump’s unfitness to be President. However, Professor Sowell was also far from being a fan of Hillary Clinton. As the election grew near, Sowell wrote an article comparing the plight of the American voter to that of an American fighter pilot in World War II whose plane had been disabled, but who yet had enough control to land the plane in the ocean or on land. If he chose the ocean, he might die from the crash’s impact, he might drown, or he might be eaten by sharks. If he chose land, he might also die from the crash’s impact or if he survived the landing, he might be captured by the Japanese, tortured, and then shot. Such was the choice between Trump and Clinton. In fact, it kind of made me envy the World War II pilot’s situation. Finally, in a column written just before the election, Sowell indicated that while he thought that Trump would be a horrible President, Clinton would be worse; and, therefore, he would be voting for Trump. I had toyed with voting for a third party candidate, however, my brother rightly pointed out that either Trump or Clinton was going to be the next President, and that with Trump there would be a wider possibility of outcomes; that is, with Clinton, you knew you would get ‘awful’ while with Trump you might get ‘awful’ but you might not.  So, in 2016 Jeanne and I both voted for Donald Trump for President. It was a good decision.

Trump’s policies as President, to my pleasant surprise, were generally quite good.

He was tenaciously pro-American as evidenced in his renegotiating trade deals, confronting China on trade policies and intellectual theft, luring businesses back to the U.S.A., and withdrawing from agreements that were disadvantageous to our Country, including the Paris Accords, and the Iranian nuclear agreement. He also insisted that our NATO allies should pay their dues and not make suckers out of the U.S.A. since we regularly paid our dues.

His foreign policy was also quite strong. Dropping a super-bomb on a Taliban camp sent a signal of strength. Similarly, when he hit a joint Russian-Syrian air base with dozens of missiles after the Syrians used chemical weapons on their own people, it was a policy of strength. When he changed the rules of engagement in Syria and Iraq allowing our troops and allies to decimate Isis, regular beheadings of Westerners that had become common during the Obama years ceased; and, Isis was essentially destroyed and become a non-factor. I really liked his policy that, rather than start wars where thousands of our young men would be killed, he would target the leaders of bellicose countries. He did this when he targeted and killed an Iranian General who had been instrumental in planning and executing the deaths of many American.

After Russia invaded Ukraine during Biden’s Presidency, a poll was taken which found that 59% of Americans believed that Russia would not have invaded if Trump were President. Actually, 100% of Americans should have believed it, since Trump had been President for four years and Putin did not invade Ukraine during that time.

His handling of North Korea was also quite effective insofar as he made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate any military action from them (My nukes are bigger than yours and unlike yours, mine actually work), but he balanced that with a charm offensive with North Korea’s leader. This resulted in a suspension of North Korea’s missile launches in the Pacific and over other countries such as Japan.

I also fully supported his effort to stop illegal immigrants from coming to our Country at their whim. He tried very hard to build a wall at our Southern border, and had some success even though Congress consistently refused to provide funding for the wall.

The economy also performed very well during Mr. Trump’s term, at least until the COVID pandemic started. His economic policies which included lowering marginal income tax rates and eliminating costly regulations encouraged increased productivity.

Regarding tax policy, doubling the standard deduction so that most taxpayers would not have to itemize and essentially eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes were brilliant economically and politically. Listening to Democrat Governors vociferously complaining that their rich citizens could no longer deduct their state income taxes on their federal income returns was quite enjoyable. Let that sink in, Democrat Governors who continuously complain that the rich are not paying their fair share of income taxes were now whining that their rich citizens were paying too much federal income tax-priceless.

However, probably the best thing that Mr. Trump did while President was to appoint three outstanding constitutional jurists to the Supreme Court which resulted in the overturning of the Court’s previous abortion rulings and the end of affirmative action.

In my view he did not perform particularly well during COVID as he gave too much power and credibility to public health hucksters; however, I cannot blame him too much for this sorry episode in American history as the whole crisis could not have been foreseen by him nor was there any good recent precedent on how to handle such a ‘pandemic.’

During his four-year tenure, he was impeached twice and was subjected to a special counsel investigation due to a claim that he had colluded with the Russians to fix the 2016 Presidential election. Both impeachments and the Russian collusion charge were laughable and were only taken seriously by feeble-minded people, mostly Democrats.

Mr. Trump’s strengths included being a strong advocate for the well-being of the United States and its citizens; being very intelligent including having a fair amount of common sense or ‘street smarts; being a problem-solver, (for example, trying to fundamentally change the nature of our relationship with North Korea); knowing, understanding, and supporting free-market capitalism.

Mr. Trump, like the rest of us has more than a few weaknesses, however, by far his greatest problem is his pride, ego, and total self-love that prevents him for taking responsibility for anything that goes wrong and enables him to claim credit for anything that goes right. This manifested itself in high rates of turnover in senior positions in his administration including Secretaries of Defense and State, Attorney General, National Security Advisor, and Chief of Staff. This is also the source of a lot of his childish name-calling.

Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis was elected Florida’s Governor in 2018 by a slim margin (less than 1%) over a dreadful Democrat candidate and was re-elected in 2022 by almost a 20% point margin. The people of Florida clearly like him and his policies. His statement that “Florida is where ‘woke’ goes to die” is very popular with a huge portion of the population that hates ‘wokeism’ but feels powerless to do anything to oppose it short of not drinking Bud Lite or shopping at Target.

He first gained attention during the COVID pandemic when he demonstrated that he actually had a brain and could think for himself. After reviewing the data, he rightly determined that COVID was not a mortal threat to most healthy individuals; and, therefore, he opened Florida’s businesses, churches, and schools long before most other states. He did a great job of making the vaccine widely available as soon as possible, particularly to the most vulnerable, while not penalizing anyone who chose not to get the shot. He was savagely criticized by the mainstream media for this approach as he was called Ron DeathSantis. However, he held his ground to the benefit of the State’s businesses, school children, and citizens.

He also signed parental rights legislation that included the following two provisions:

A school district may not adopt procedures or student support forms that prohibit school district personnel from notifying a parent about his or her student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being, or a change in related services or monitoring, or that encourage or have the effect of encouraging a student to withhold from a parent such information. School district personnel may not discourage or prohibit parental notification of and involvement in critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being. This subparagraph does not prohibit a school district from adopting procedures that permit school personnel to withhold such information from a parent if a reasonably prudent person would believe that disclosure would result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect, as those terms are defined in s. 39.01.

Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.

These two provisions essentially prohibit school personnel from initiating gender transitioning for a child without the parents’ knowledge and approval; and prevent homosexual and transexual indoctrination of children between the ages of four and seven. This should be non-controversial. It isn’t. The bill resulted in the fury of hell being thrown at Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature. Some of the most fierce and powerful opposition came from that great family-friendly Corporation, Walt Disney. However, DeSantis stood his ground and the bill was passed and signed into law.

As a result of the battle described above, DeSantis and Disney had and continue to have conflict. DeSantis appears to be winning since, as previously stated, he was re-elected with a margin of almost 20%, while Disney’s stock has declined in value by approximately 50% during the last two years.

He has also supported and enacted similar legislation designed to protect children from having their bodies mutilated even with parental consent as well as laws banning men from using women’s bathrooms and showers. He has also supported, helped to pass, and signed legislation that bans men from competing in women’s sports.

DeSantis has done other good things such as flying illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard so that their residents could demonstrate how loving and accepting they are toward such immigrants. Just kidding of course, the rich liberals living in Martha’s Vineyard are loving, accepting, and protective of illegal immigrants as long as they don’t have to be near them or in any way deal with them.

Recently, he signed a bill that reduced from fifteen weeks to six weeks from conception, the period in which a woman in Florida can get an abortion. While many see this as a sell-out of the prolife position, I believe it is a realistic improvement over the status-quo-ante which will save lives and move policy in the correct direction.

He also fired a county attorney who indicated that he would not enforce the abortion, parental rights, and other bills listed above.

While idiots around the country were defunding the police, DeSantis and the Florida Legislature were luring good policemen to the state; and, people in Florida, with a few exceptions in large cities, enjoy a secure low-crime environment. Florida regularly pays bonuses to their police officers and also pays signing bonuses to officers to come from other states.

He has done a lot of other good things such as quickly rebuilding Florida after a massive hurricane wreaked destruction on the State. But the bottom line is summarized in two facts: The people of Florida re-elected him with a margin of almost 20% points; and, people are now voting with their feet by moving to Florida each year by the hundreds of thousands.

So, which of these two guys should we support? As the Presidential election season approached, I was optimistic that we had two very strong potential candidates to run against Joe Biden or whatever warm body the Democrats chose to run in 2024. Currently, Mr. Trump has a significant lead among Republicans for the 2024 nomination. I believe this is because of three factors: he is better known nationally than DeSantis, his policies as President were excellent and produced more wealth and freedom for the average person, and most Republicans are disgusted with the political elites’ obsession to destroy him for relatively minor infractions while ignoring the sell-out of our country by the Democrats (see the Southern border and Biden’s selling influence, access, and secrets to the Chinese). When Trump’s home at Maro Lago was raided, my first instinct was also that we had to nominate and elect him to clean-up the vermin that is in control of our government/legal system/country.

However, since he announced that he is once again running for President, Mr. Trump has made a compelling case for voting for Ron DeSantis. At a time of crisis in our Country, when Joe Biden and the Democrats are systematically destroying our rights, freedoms, and prosperity, it should be ‘all hands on deck’ to oppose and stop them. The left is not our loyal opposition, they are our enemy and the greatest threat to the continuation of our Country as a free and prosperous nation. Ron DeSantis has been a powerful leader and voice against the insanity that is being visited upon us by Biden and the political left. When Trump began his campaign, not by attacking Joe Biden and the Democrats, but by attacking Ron DeSantis, I consider that an act of political treason. His attacks have been childish (Ron Desanctimonious), and dishonest (DeSantis wants to end Social Security, locked-down Florida during the pandemic, and wants to increase retail prices by over 20%).

Trump has made it clear that when it comes to the well-being of the Country or his political future, the latter comes first with him. With Trump, it is all about Trump, first, last, and always. It is why he never served in the military (DeSantis did), because in the military one must be willing to give one’s life for his Country; that is, put the Country before yourself. It is why he is currently married to his third wife (DeSantis is still married to his first wife); that is, because a real man, to have a successful marriage, puts his wife and children first. It is why he cannot keep staff long-term (DeSantis can and does)-see above where I list the turnover in key positions of his administration.

In summary, currently, I believe that Ron DeSantis is a better, more principled man than is Donald Trump, is just as strong as Trump, and is able and willing to put the well-being of the Country and his family before himself. Trump or DeSantis? I think it is clearly DeSantis.