bleep show

Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis is turning to Elon Musk to announce his 2024 run & it’s going to be a mess

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Ron DeSantis standing behind a podium.

Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis is going to finally announce his candidacy for president Wednesday night on Twitter with Elon Musk. That’s right: a loathsome duo is going to kick off what promises to be a loathsome campaign.

What a perfect way to get things started!

DeSantis has been telegraphing his presidential ambitions for months, supporting a large swath of far-right legislation that targets LGBTQ+ people. In addition, he’s embarked on a gaffe-filled international tour and practiced his awkward brand of retail politics in early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

Once viewed as Donald Trump‘s most formidable challenger, DeSantis’ support among Republican voters has cratered thanks to a myriad of missteps. Most recently, his futile feud with Disney resulted the company abandoning a $1 billion developmental project in Orlando, which would’ve brought 2,000 jobs to the region…with $120,000 as the average annual salary.

The Florida governor, of course, is feuding with Disney, the biggest private employer and tourism attraction in his state, because the company criticized his draconian “Don’t Say Gay” law. DeSantis’ unwavering assault on the LGBTQ+ community started in earnest with “Don’t Say Gay,” which prohibits classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity through all grade levels.

Since then, he’s signed a law outlawing gender-affirming care for minors, and an anti-trans bathroom bill that allows adults to be criminally charged if they don’t use the bathroom that matches the sex they were assigned at birth. Florida also has a new anti-drag law that bars minors from attending drag shows with “lewd” performances. The vagueness of the bill is seemingly the point.

But once again, DeSantis’ atavism is resulting in embarrassing headlines. On Tuesday, the popular Orlando restaurant Hamburger Mary’s sued DeSantis, saying the law has negatively impacted their bottom line.

To kick off the week, the NAACP took the unusual step of warning Black people about visiting the Sunshine State. The leading civil rights group say its advisory is a “direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”

Other items on DeSantis’ legislative agenda last session included school book bans and a six-week abortion ban. Those extreme measures have caused multiple donors to reconsider their support for the two-term governor.

“What the f*** is wrong with RD?,” asked an anonymous donor in a leaked text message.

And yet, DeSantis is going ahead with his presidential run. The announcement is expected to happen at 6:00 p.m. on Twitter Spaces, a “streaming tool with a history of bugs and failures,” according to the New York Times.

That sounds appropriate, too.

Oh, and did we mention Elon Musk will be there? Yuck!

Once DeSantis announces, he’s expected to enter the crowded Republican field with a $200 million war chest, per the NYT.

But all of that money doesn’t change the fact that DeSantis, whose personality was once compared to a “piece of paper,” keeps getting hammered with a barrage of bad headlines. And after Wednesday night, the scrutiny is only going to get worse.

Scroll down for more reaction about DeSantis’ pending campaign announcement, which promises to be an absolute bleep-show…