Once upon a time, Ron DeSantis was supposed to be the younger, fitter, more disciplined Trump 2.0. Those were the days, my friend. Ol’ Pudding Fingers has spent months lagging way, way behind the GOP’s presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, who’s also his state’s most famous resident. (At least he won’t call him Meatball Ron.) Things are so bad that he’s had to gut his campaign staff. But at least one fired employee seems to have deserved his fate.
As first reported by Semafor, among the firees was Nate Hochman, who had been seen as a rising star in today’s extra-combative far right. He even left The National Review to join DeSantis’ team as a speechwriter. He also retweeted multiple pro-DeSantis videos from their Twitter account DeSantisCams.
But on Tuesday Hochman was out. The campaign wouldn’t say why, but some speculated it might be because he shared another pro-DeSantis video over weekend that was even more alarming than the anti-LBTQIA+ one they shared a few weekends ago. After all this one, boasted Nazi imagery.
The video finds a “wojack” character, depressed by Trump’s record, finding a new hope in DeSantis. It’s all well and good — which is to say it’s terrible in a mediocre fashion — until the end, when the seal of Florida transforms into the Sonnenrad, or the Black Sun symbol originated in Nazi Germany and later used by Neo-Nazis. Under the Sonnenrad lies DeSantis surrounded by soldiers marching in formation.
Hochman later deleted the video. It’s unclear who made it, though Axios reported that he did.
Did the DeSantis team not want one of the staffers outright comparing him to Adolf Hitler? Was that too much even for someone who suppresses free speech and tries to the power of the state to crush those he doesn’t like? They won’t say, but it’s another sign that this might not be DeSantis’ time.
(Via Semafor)