Florida Governor Ronda Santos is expected to launch his 2024 presidential campaign next week so far seven Republicans have officially entered the race that includes former president Donald Trump who is desantis's biggest challenge for months Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been Coy about his plans to enter the race stay tuned on that.
But now he's expected to formally launch a campaign next week the rising Republican party star has long been seen as the top rival to former president Donald Trump who spent months attacking him I'm leading to sanctimonious by a lot which I think he ought to just relax and take it easy and think about the future because right now his future is not looking so good the attacks appear to have knocked DeSantis back he's fallen 10 points among GOP voters since March.
The two men are now sparring who's stronger when it comes to curbing access to abortion Services descent is signed a ban on the procedures after six weeks which Trump wouldn't say he supports I'm looking at a solution that's going to work so DeSantis knowing GOP Primary voters support his move struck back on Tuesday I signed the bill I was proud to do it he won't answer whether he would sign it or not but so far its fight with Disney it's gotten the most attention the governor went to war with the company after criticized his so-called don't say gay legislation no Corporation is above the law and the people of this state Disney has since sued the governor for carrying out a campaign of political retribution and today announced its scrapping plans to move thousands more workers to the state AIDS say DeSantis is expected to run on his robust conservative record.
Among other things he signed controversial bills loosening gun rights Banning gender affirming care for transgender Youth and restricting drag shows the State of Florida is where woke goes to die and Ed joins me now from Washington so at the latest DeSantis comfortably trailing if you can be comfortably trailing but anyway uh so he's trailing uh former president.
Trump what does the governor appear to be doing in terms of trying to basically fix those numbers so the goal over the last several months John has is to rely on Florida's gop-dominated state legislature to pass all that legislation we mentioned in addition to those anti -woke pieces of work there's uh you know new restrictions on uh what can be taught in elementary middle high school and state-funded public universities in terms of diversity Equity inclusion gender sexuality there was Millions more provided to continue transporting migrants out of the state there were changes to death penalty laws loosen gun restrictions all of it designed to demonstrate to Republican voters or the independent voters that might favor them across the country.
This guy's serious about implementing a conservative policy agenda and was able to do so quite easily I was stunned being done in Tallahassee a few weeks ago looking at some of the things that just been passed over the course of three days any of that would have dominated the discourse in most other states for several weeks but they were getting passed so quickly and he calls it the Florida blueprint and he's convinced that as he starts traveling the country and telling Republican voters about it they're going to go oh that guy's a serious.
Republican Contender who's done things we'd like to see Washington do right so the question then is whether this what he calls the anti-woke kind of set of legislation set of ideas Republican primary voters may like those may think that's great we agree with those but are they distinguishing issues that essentially allow him to find a wedge to separate um Republican primary voters from their affection for the former president Donald Trump that's the gamble that he's undergoing and it's why it's been so interesting to see him as an almost candidate him and ha over how exactly to attack the former president this week on abortion we may have seen a preview of what's to come where there was a real substantive difference between them on an issue that the scientist knows is a hot button one for most primary voters but proudly taking that stance of a six-week ban which has been passed.
In some other states and pointing out that the former presidents waffling on the issue which is especially important to voters in Iowa where he's expected to spend a lot of time given that they are a more socially conservative group of Voters so we'll see if through policy and through personality there's a real conflict there or or if he just sort of points out out the fact that you know the former president lost last time reduced Republican majorities and he would argue he can expand them what is this maybe it's too early to know as you mentioned in your piece Disney has decided to pull out about a billion dollars according to uh a Florida economic calculation a billion dollars out of the state 2 000 jobs the Republican party has been known to be a pro-business party is there any preliminary thinking about how that lands within that that primary and and what Disney's thinking is I I assume is just essentially DeSantis has made Florida an unattractive state for them.
Well that's part of it the other thing I read today I'm no business journalist but I was reading some of the uh coverage of of of this decision and it was pointed out to Bob Iger who's now back as the Disney CEO had signaled he was not a fan of moving what are called imagineers from essentially Hollywood to Orlando believing that these engineers and artists who do movie making should stay where most of the movie making is happening in California it was his predecessor that decided to move them to Florida and build this massive Office Park essentially to bring them to Florida it has to do with the fact that the state is targeting the company now but it also has to do with the fact that Disney like many other media companies is facing some cost cutting and it looks as if that was part of the decision but Disney has no problem pointing out that yes Governor DeSantis and the way he's targeting.
The company is a big factor and it's seen by a lot of Republicans and by Corporate America and by corporate donors who like Republicans is a sign that maybe the governor's gone too far and you can expect Trump and others to call it out today the former president said the governor had been quote caught in the mouse trap
John okay it'll
keep in Washington thanks a million, take care.