Ron, Gone! Top 10 Reactions to DeSantis Suspending Presidential Bid

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' hopes of parlaying his pandemic-era popularity in Florida into a key to the White House sputtered out over the weekend.

DeSantis announced his withdrawal from the presidential race on the Sunday before the New Hampshire primary, throwing his support behind Donald Trump, the man who'd whipped him by 30 points in the Iowa caucuses and the candidate he'd steadfastly refused to criticize over the past year.

"He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents," DeSantis said.

The New York Times heralded the news concisely, declaring, "His exit caps a spectacular political failure."

A year ago, DeSantis emerged as Trump's most formidable foe, opting to run to the right of the former president by turning Florida into a petri dish of right-wing authoritarianism — stoking concerns about political indoctrination in the classroom, touting conservative stances on LGBTQ issues, and bashing former White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.

On January 21, DeSantis' bid ended with a whimper.

Upon hearing the news, candidate Trump extended an olive branch to the man he'd dubbed "DeSanctimonious."

"I’d like to take time to congratulate Ron DeSantis," Trump said during a campaign stop in Rochester, New Hampshire. "He ran a really good campaign. I also look forward to working with Ron and everybody else to defeat Crooked Joe Biden."

Trump's sole remaining serious foe had little to say about DeSantis' exit.

"He ran a great race, he's been a good governor, and we wish him well," Haley said during a campaign stop in Seabrook, New Hampshire. "It's now one fella and one lady left."

On the more entertaining side, X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, came alive in reaction to the Florida governor's white flag.

Here are the ten choicest responses we could find on DeSantis' sayonara — leading off with the governor's own!

Ron DeSantis

At 2:57 p.m., the @RonDeSantis account shared a four-minute video farewell topped by this quotation, which he attributed to Winston Churchill:

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

Many were quick to point out that Winston Churchill said no such thing. In fact, more than a decade ago, no less an authority than the International Churchill Society posted that the quotation, along with a similar sentiment, "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm," almost certainly did not originate from Sir Winston's tongue nor his pen:

"Though you will find that these quotes are broadly attributed to Winston Churchill, we can find no firm attribution for either of these statements, and they are found nowhere in his canon. An almost equal number of sources online credit these sayings to Abraham Lincoln — but we have found none that provides any attribution in the Lincoln Archives."

Daniel Uhlfelder

Predictably, Florida attorney and insatiable anti-DeSantis gadfly Daniel Uhlfelder could not stay silent.

Uhlfelder, who made headlines walking around Florida beaches in a Grim Reaper costume to satirize DeSantis' COVID-19-era health policies, unleashed a multimedia barrage on his X account, @DWUhfelderLaw, including a terse "One fascist down. One more to go."

Mike Drucker

Comedian Mike Drucker, known for his work as a writer and producer for the Samantha Bee show Full Frontal, noted the lengths to which the Florida governor was willing to go to score points with his far-right political base.

"Yes, DeSantis may have trashed his own state to score points with the base. Yes, DeSantis started a blood feud with a theme park. Yes, DeSantis talked to normal humans like a newborn Ferengi. But the important thing is he got absolutely nothing."

Saverio Guerra

Actor and writer Saverio Guerra pointed out that DeSantis has other priorities to tend to.

"Ron DeSantis drops out of presidential race. Says he wants to spend more time being an asshole!"

Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Dispatch and a Los Angeles Times columnist, shared this thought with 360K-plus followers:

"And scene. After a year of being humiliated by Donald Trump, DeSantis endorses him as he exits stage right. What a perfectly sad ending to this chapter."

Paul Krugman

Economist and longtime New York Times columnist Paul Krugman reflected on the governor's accomplishments during the COVID-19 pandemic:

"Although we're all making fun of DeSantis's humiliation, we shouldn't forget that his anti-vax crusade — in service of his doomed run — probably killed thousands of people."

(While Krugman's tweet got the point across, but there's no denying that Canadian comedian Deven Green, AKA Mrs. Betty Bowers, said it better: "I wonder how many Floridians died of COVID just so Ron DeSantis could not be president.")

Larry Elder

Political commentator and former Republican presidential candidate Larry Elder took the opportunity to call on Nikki Haley to follow DeSantis' example.

"Ron DeSantis dropped out because he did not see a path. What’s @NikkiHaley’s excuse? Asking for a friend."

(Elder, a onetime attorney and host of an eponymous talk show, dropped out of the GOP race in October after barely registering in the polls.)

Sarah Longwell

Focus Group podcast host Sarah Longwell urged us to pay attention to how DeSantis' supporters respond to his decision to abandon the campaign ship.

"As we share our fond remembrances of Ron DeSantis’s spectacular failure of a campaign, let’s not forget all the anti-anti pundits who assured us of his greatness. Keep an eye on those folks as they, like their fallen hero, begin their sad journey back to carrying water for Trump."

A.R. Moxon

The author and political writer who tweets as @JuliusGoat didn't mince words, invoking the Florida governor's anti-choice militance.

"Ron DeSantis should be forced to carry his dead campaign to term."

Frank Conniff

We'll  leave it to comedian Frank Conniff Jr., known to many as the voice of Frank on Mystery Science Theater 3000, to deliver the coup de grâce:

"As Ron DeSantis drops out of the race, I can at least graciously acknowledge that we may disagree on the issues, but aside from that he is a sad, pitiful excuse for a human being, a reprehensible piece of shit. God speed and fuck off forever, good sir."