This interview more or less confirms my view that the “GOP establishment” wants another George W. Bush. DeSantis is being used as a decoy for the purpose of coopting the populist right by luring them away from Trump. The aim is to purge Trump and replace him with DeSantis as the leader as a coopted form of right-populism (“national conservatism”) that is used to deflect the harder-line populist-right. And then DeSantis will be sidelined and replaced with an outright neocon puppet. DeSantis seems to be aware of this and is signaling that he is safe to the neocons. Hence, his zealous “Israel First” stance.  But he is still regarded as too close to the populist-right for the neocons to be comfortable with. Notice that Liz Cheney has refused to support DeSantis, a sign of what is coming. I should add that I am not especially a fan of the populist-right. I see the populist-right as having value only as a counterbalance to the neoliberal/neocon establishment.

Ep. 2199 Does the GOP Establishment Want DeSantis?