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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is best placed to take Trump’s place as a GOP presidential candidate in 2024.
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An authoritarian expert told Insider that this is because he learned all of Trump’s lessons.
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The pundit added that DeSantis “doesn’t have Trump’s baggage” and could rally voters.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could be the GOP’s natural successor to former President Donald Trump as a 2024 presidential nominee, and he’s not coming with Trump’s drama, an authoritarianism expert told Insider.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a historian at New York University and author of the book ‘Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present’. She has studied the decline of democracy from the US to Russia and elsewhere.
In a lengthy interview, she told Insider that in light of the January 6 hearings, Trump may need to be prosecuted to save American democracy before the 2024 election. In that context, she said DeSantis could take his place as a populist candidate. .
†What we do find in history is that, in the longer term, persecution is one of the few things that drains these guys’ personality cults, because those cults are based on the idea that they’re invincible, infallible,” Ben said. -Ghiat: “If that happens to Trump now, DeSantis has already absorbed all of Trump’s lessons.”
Ben-Ghiat has written several essays to support her argument.
“He’s clearly preparing for a national run, be it in 2024 or later. And he’s a very dangerous person,” Ben Ghiat said. “He’s dangerous because he’s equally repressive, but he doesn’t have Trump’s baggage. It’s hard to have Trump’s baggage.”
DeSantis has recently signed controversial bills, such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law — which restricts teachers’ curricula on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade — and the
Stop WOKE Act, which restricts the way race is discussed in workplaces, schools and colleges. He also implemented an Office on Electoral Crimes and Security, misleading voting rights advocates.
DeSantis, who has raised $124 million, has recently denied that he will run in 2024 and insists he will focus on his own race in 2022.
Read the original article on Business Insider
