WASHINGTON — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is crisscrossing the country as he lays the groundwork for an increasingly likely 2028 presidential campaign — refining his pitch, building relationships and working to move past his bruising 2024 defeat by President Trump.
The term-limited Sunshine State governor, 47, started the week by joining business leaders at the Milken Institute’s global conference in Beverly Hills and will keynote the New York Republican Party’s May 19 annual gala at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
“I’m in my mid-40s. [20]28, you know, maybe beyond that, I think that there’s a lot of runway,” DeSantis said Monday when asked if he would run for president.
“Who knows? Like, you never know,” he told The Post’s Charles Gasparino during a moderated discussion, before launching into what sounded like a campaign pitch.
“Who took a state that had more Democrats than Republicans by 300,000 when he got elected [in 2018], and now has 1.5 million more Republicans?” DeSantis asked, referring to himself.
“Who had a state that had a trillion-dollar economy and now has $1.8 trillion? Who has a state that had some school choice, now universal? A 50-year low in the crime rate? So we’ve got a good story to tell.”
A Republican insider told The Post of the Florida governor that “it’s not been a secret he’s running.”
“I think DeSantis totally thinks he can win,” said a GOP operative who frequently is in Florida. “He’d be top two in Iowa for sure.”
While Trump himself seems to have moved past the bad blood of the 2024 campaign, from which DeSantis withdrew following a distant second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, some of his allies would welcome a chance to take down his fellow Floridian — again.
“Team Trump is chomping at the bit to destroy DeSantis one more time,” a longtime Trump operative told The Post.
When DeSantis launched his first campaign for the White House three years ago this month, he was viewed as a rising star who could redirect Trump’s disruptive populism into an even-keeled agenda of low-tax, low-regulation business stewardship coupled with conservative social policies.
Over the past year, DeSantis has been busy repairing his relationship with the president and is even considered to be a possible cabinet pick next year when he departs Tallahassee.
“His lane is: most competent and effective governor in our nation’s history who consistently delivers on every promise he makes,” said DeSantis’ former national spokesperson Christina Pushaw, who described the governor as having significant potential appeal to independents.
The GOP operative frequently in Florida agreed that “a lot of people like DeSantis.”
“This is a guy that I believe sees there’s a window to run for president, you don’t know how long it stays open, and once it’s closed, that’s it,” this person said.
DeSantis signed legislation in March to rename West Palm Beach’s airport in Trump’s honor, on the heels of facilitating the construction of Trump’s presidential library in Miami.
In one of his biggest deliveries yet for Trump, DeSantis signed a bill on Monday to redraft Florida’s congressional districts, giving Republicans an anticipated four-seat gain in the November midterm elections — offsetting a likely four-district loss in Virginia.
The aggressive redistricting move guards against a possible Democratic takeover of the House, which would result in Trump’s anticipated third impeachment, the end of his legislative agenda and an array of other investigations.
DeSantis golfed with Trump in February and March — publicly showing there’s no bad blood despite the president ruthlessly mocking him with the nicknames “DeSanctimonious” and “Meatball Ron” during the 2024 primary campaign.
Many Trump loyalists remain wary, however, and the governor would face stiff competition in 2028.
Polling shows that Vice President JD Vance is currently best-positioned to succeed Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also viewed as a possible front-runner and others, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), are likely to at least explore campaigns.
Lately, “you hear a lot more about Rubio. Rubio is the guy,” the Florida operative said. “Vance has his pockets, but overwhelmingly Rubio is the guy among most people … even, say, in Palm Beach.”
“It’s JD’s race to lose right now,” suggested a former DeSantis staffer.
“That said, there’s a million new cycles between now and a primary — anything can happen with a coalition that’s showing cracks.”
The former aide said that “DeSantis is by far the most effective, results-driven conservative executive in recent memory, but it remains to be seen if his team learned the right lessons from the [2024] campaign.”
“The country would be better off in every way should he stay on the national stage,” the ex-aide said. “The moves he makes in the coming months should be very revealing.”
DeSantis, born in 1978, is the son of a TV rating box installer who played baseball at Yale University before graduating from Harvard Law School in 2005.
He often plays up his humble origins, joking as recently as Monday about showing up to class in New Haven wearing jean shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops.
Before entering politics, DeSantis served in the Navy, including in Iraq. In 2012, he was elected to represent the Daytona Beach area in the US House, then narrowly beat Democrat Andrew Gillum in 2018 to become governor. He cruised to a nearly 20-point reelection win in 2022 against Charlie Crist, the state’s former Republican governor who ran as a Democrat.
MAGA not sold — despite Cabinet buzz
DeSantis’s candidacy in 2024 broke with Trump on many issues, and the president’s loyalists remain skeptical — noting the governor’s perceived social awkwardness that led to public scrutiny of everything from his choice of footwear to the timbre of his laugh.
As a candidate, DeSantis accused Trump of “running to the left” on economic, immigration and abortion policy and faulted him for listening to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID-19 pandemic shutdown guidance. He didn’t push for sweeping global tariffs and vowed to move on from the “daily drama” of Trump.
After lapping the GOP primary field, Trump won a second non-consecutive term, winning the national popular vote and an Electoral College landslide.
Trump’s comeback campaign was masterminded by Florida political veteran Susie Wiles, an ex-DeSantis aide whom the governor fired in 2019 despite her role in helping him win his office the prior year.
Insiders insist Wiles, now White House chief of staff and the most powerful aide to the president, doesn’t hold a grudge against DeSantis.
“Susie isn’t in the business of holding grudges. She leaves that kind of baggage at the door and shows up every day to serve the president,” the Trump operative insisted.
“If there’s any issue from the past with Ron, it’s because his social awareness peaked around the age of show-and-tell.”
Trump himself told reporters last month that he’s open to naming the governor to his cabinet because “I think he’s good — doing a good job.”
The current betting is that DeSantis likely won’t join the administration, despite speculation he could be either attorney general or war secretary.
“Do you want to be defense secretary in the Republican Party, where a lot of the voters aren’t necessarily as gung ho about this war stuff, and you have a president who seems willing to go into war?” the GOP operative often in Florida said.
“I do think there’s reason to think that that’s not the right position to be in if you want to run for president.”
A former Trump White House official said that the attorney general role “made the most sense,” but added that acting attorney general Todd Blanche is “doing well” and may fill the position permanently — while the move could be “dumb tactically” for DeSantis.
The governor still has many opponents among the president’s core political team, even if Trump, the likely GOP king-maker in 2028, has warmed to him.
“No matter how many influencers he pays off, Ron will never be the heir to the MAGA movement,” the longtime Trump operative told The Post.
The former White House official, meanwhile, scoffed at the governor’s shifting approach to Trump, calling DeSantis “as authentic as a strip mall Santa.”
Still, Trump has made a habit of pulling former enemies into his orbit.
Rubio and Trump, for example, traded attacks in 2016, with the then-Florida senator even making vulgar insinuations about the future president’s hand size. Trump has since given Rubio an ever-mounting number of administration roles and mentions him as a possible successor alongside Vance.
The president also gave DeSantis a shout-out at a college athletics panel discussion in March at the White House.
“Ron DeSantis has been working very hard with us,” the president raved.
“Wherever you may be, Ron — Hi, Ron! — [he] has some great ideas and some great coaches that gave him some great ideas.”
