Ron DeSantis and Elon Musk

I joined Germany’s Deutsche Welle and China Radio International to analyze the 2024 US Presidential campaign of Florida Governor Ron Desantis, beginning with his disastrous launch on Elon Musk’s Twitter Spaces and continuing with his disastrous “culture wars” approach ripping up public services, denying rights, and dividing society.

Watch Discussion on Deutsche Welle

The closing answer from my conversation, on Wednesday afternoon before the launch, with Anja McKinnon.

Was DeSantis’s choice of Twitter for his launch significant?

It’s significant if you’re a narcissist like Elon Musk, who has turned Twitter from a credible platform for communication into a dumpster fire as his personal playground….

If DeSantis can’t succeed face-to-face, what does he do? He talks to Elon.

Listen to Discussion with China Radio International from 24:40

My conversation on Thursday with the Chinese State outlet, taking apart DeSantis’s claim of legitimacy through “culture war” — and at the same time refusing to engage in assault on US democracy and media.

I think DeSantis’s launch on Twitter tells us that rather than dealing with the substance of America’s social, economic, and political issues, Mr. DeSantis preferred going for the spectacle and the circus.

The problem for Mr. DeSantis is it didn’t show progress in using social media — it showed weakness when the Twitter platform was unable to carry his announcement.

See also EA on Monocle 24: The Nastiness of Ron DeSantis

There is also an amusing aside when I was asked about Donald Trump’s response to DeSantis’s announcement:

Whatever.

Donald Trump insults anyone who dares to run for President against him. If Xi Jinping and Good Lord Jesus ran, he’d insult them as well.

The host laughed — but Xi Jinping’s name was still edited out of the recording.