Many mainstream media pundits have spent years insisting former President Trump is a dangerous threat to the republic, often comparing him to the worst people to ever walk the earth. But as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has emerged as a viable threat to lead the GOP presidential ticket in 2024, he’s regularly painted as even more sinister than Trump.
"For much of the establishment media today, there is a need to create a boogeyman out of whichever right-of-center politician is most likely to disrupt their preferred ideological vision," DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall told Fox News Digital.
"Trump made it easy for the progressive media to attack him as a threat to democracy, but even before that, the ideologically driven media made out George W. Bush, and presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney, of all people, as dangerous threats to the media's preferred order," McCall continued. "The left-of-center media is now going after DeSantis as a sort of preemptive strike to establish a narrative that can be continued should DeSantis emerge as the GOP nominee."
MSNBC’s David Jolly has repeatedly said DeSantis is "far more dangerous" than Trump, a notion that has emerged as the talking point du jour from the left. Jolly is a former Florida Republican congressman who has taken a sharp left turn in his politics, winning more MSNBC airtime in the process, and has been quoted in several outlet's pieces critical of DeSantis.
The HuffPost published an opinion piece bluntly headlined, "No one is more dangerous for the White House than Ron DeSantis — including Donald Trump," which said the Florida governor is "more informed, tactical and calculated, which makes him way more dangerous."
"Imagine Donald Trump, but with brains and savvy," Dustin Seibert wrote. "Imagine Trump, but with a stalwart dedication toward legislation that moves the country in a direction that should terrify most reasonable human beings."
Fox News contributor Joe Concha believes the attacks on DeSantis are coming for a pair of reasons.
"The first is that the media has a vested interest in Donald Trump being the GOP nominee because he's good for clicks and ratings," Concha told Fox News Digital.
"The second reason is many of them believe that DeSantis would be a stronger general election candidate than Trump, because he can attract independents, suburban women, disenfranchised Democrats, as we witnessed during his landslide victory in November," Concha continued. "If DeSantis is such a threat to democracy, how did he win so many Democratic counties in Florida?"
DESANTIS ARGUES ATTACKS BY TRUMP SHOW ‘HE UNDERSTANDS I’M THE CANDIDATE WHO CAN BEAT HIM'
Political analyst Matthew Dowd claimed DeSantis is "far more dangerous" than Trump because he’s "smart" and "more strategic," while ex-MSNBC host Tiffany Cross has suggested DeSantis is more dangerous because Trump was simply a "useful idiot."
Vox pondered if DeSantis is "Trump 2.0," Tufts Daily wrote, "Ron DeSantis is no better than Donald Trump," the Chicago Tribune published a letter suggesting DeSantis "may be more dangerous" than Trump, and Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast declared that DeSantis "shouldn’t be covered just like another Republican" presidential candidate because he is so terrible.
"Yes, it turns out that being slightly less disgusting, a good bit more coherent, than Trump, is a viable GOP lane. DeSantis is like Shakespeare compared to the former president. He doesn’t talk about grabbing people by their genitals or dating his daughter. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that these days Trump is the poor man’s DeSantis, which is pretty ironic because DeSantis created himself in the image of Trump," she wrote.
Liberal blog Salon published a piece headlined, "Donald Trump makes Ron DeSantis so much more dangerous," which featured a subhead noting the "choice between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump is the equivalent of choosing between being stabbed or shot." Washington Post columnist Max Boot wrote last year that "DeSantis is smarter than Trump," which "may make him more of a threat."
MSNBC has been as anti-Trump as any news organization and spent years pushing the since-debunked Russian collusion narrative. But it hinted at the worse-than-Trump strategy in 2022 when DeSantis was gaining influences among conservatives. MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen published an opinion piece titled, "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a far more dangerous politician than Donald Trump."
MSNBC’s columnist called DeSantis "quite possibly the most dangerous figure in American politics," and essentially declared him more competent than Trump.
"DeSantis brings something to the table that Trump lacks — his ability to translate political vindictiveness, cruelty and demagoguery into policy results," Cohen wrote.
"What he shares with Trump is a vindictive and demagogic streak, unquenchable ambition and a refusal to be weighed down by political norms or democratic traditions. Like Trump, his time in office would be marked by repeated attempts to pit Americans against each other," the MSNBC columnist continued. "But unlike Trump, DeSantis has the proven ability to follow through on divisive rhetoric. The complete package, DeSantis represents a terrifying future for America, and by 2025 it could become a reality."
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted that Hitler is getting a "historical makeover" from the press.
"The DNC-loyal media, 2015-2022: Trump is literally Hitler. The DNC-loyal media, now: Trump is even worse than before. And DeSantis is worse than Trump. Meaning: Trump and DeSantis are both worse than Hitler," Greenwald tweeted.
NewBusters managing editor Curtis Houck isn't surprised by recent attacks on DeSantis.
"No matter the GOP nominee in 2024, the liberal media will never give them a fair shake," Houck told Fox News Digital, reiterating that the trend goes back decades.
"It doesn't matter whether they were a rock-ribbed conservative like Ronald Reagan, an outsider like Donald Trump, a known commodity like George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush, or a so-called moderate like Mitt Romney or the late John McCain. No matter who you are, the media will assume the worst, descending into near-Hitler status with the name-calling," Houck said. "If everyone is the second coming of Hitler or fill-in-the-blank dictator from yesteryear, then no one is."
Florida radio host Trey Radel, a former Republican congressman who served alongside DeSantis, joked that even Mother Teresa would have been roasted in the press if she ran for president under the GOP banner.
"She would be a racist, misogynist, far-right Nazi, far more dangerous than Trump and DeSantis combined, if she started to rise in the polls," he quipped.
