Ron DeSantis' Allies Push Tried-And-Failed Pro-Trump Debate Strategy

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) greets then-President Donald Trump in Fort Myers, Florida, in October 2020. DeSantis seemingly aims to argue that he'd be a better president than Trump without attacking him.

Republican strategists behind a super PAC supporting the White House bid of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are advising him to adopt a not-so-novel approach to the first GOP primary debate: Defend former President Donald Trump and attack other rivals.

Axiom Strategies, a consulting firm affiliated with the pro-DeSantis group, Never Back Down, recommends that DeSantis “attack” President Joe Biden, the media and Republican hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, but defend Trump “in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack,” according to a two-page strategy memorandum that was available on the firm’s website but deleted after The New York Times began reporting on its contents Thursday.

The memo, dated Tuesday, elaborates on what it envisions DeSantis saying to defend Trump against attacks from Christie, the former GOP governor of New Jersey and Trump ally turned critic.

“Trump isn’t here so let’s just leave him alone. He’s too weak to defend himself here. We’re all running against him,” the consultants recommended that DeSantis say at Wednesday’s debate in Milwaukee. “I don’t think we want to join forces with someone on this stage who’s auditioning for a show on MSNBC.”

Instead of going after Trump — by far the polling leader in the GOP primary — the pro-DeSantis advisers push the governor to “hammer” Ramaswamy, a charismatic critic of so-called woke culture with no political experience who is nipping at DeSantis’ heels in a new Fox News survey. The memorandum even advises DeSantis to take a page out of Trump’s playbook by giving Ramaswamy a pejorative nickname. “Take a sledge-hammer to Vivek Ramaswamy: ‘Fake Vivek’ Or ‘Vivek the Fake,’” the document states.

A separate opposition research memo on Ramaswamy that remains available on Axiom Strategies’ website highlights his history of taking positions at odds with contemporary right-wing orthodoxy, including support for taxing inheritances and entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that Trump shelved.

“Vivek’s job on Aug 23 is to introduce himself and his vision to the American people. These boring, canned attack lines from a robotic candidate doesn’t change that,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign, told HuffPost. “If DeSantis struggles to use a spoon, I can’t imagine he is particularly agile with a sledgehammer.”

Ramaswamy also responded directly to the memorandum on the social media app X with a Trumpian epithet of his own.

At the same time, Axiom Strategies drafts a road map for DeSantis to distinguish himself from Trump by arguing that the onslaught the former president faces from law enforcement authorities would make it hard for him to govern.

“We need someone that can fight for you instead of fighting for himself,” the memo suggests DeSantis should say.

The strategy outlined in the memo risks a repeat of the GOP primary in 2016, when Trump’s rivals often turned against each other while often heaping praise on the front-runner. It was Christie, after all, who took down Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) during a debate early that year. Super PACs supporting the non-Trump candidates spent more money on attack ads focused on candidates other than Trump.

“Big 2016 vibes,” a GOP strategist previously told HuffPost after the first signs of friction between DeSantis and fellow hopeful Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) emerged.

The publicly posted memos also reveal how the super PAC, flush with $130 million in donations, is coordinating with DeSantis’ presidential campaign.

Super PACs are legally barred from engaging in such coordination. But in the decade-plus since their inception, campaigns have figured out how to get around these legal barriers. While private coordination is technically prohibited, posting materials, information or strategy publicly is not.

In the past, super PACs have aided the candidates they supported by posting detailed campaign memos, polling data and advertising buys — sometimes through obscure social media accounts. Campaigns also post information online for their super PACs to use, like b-roll footage and public appearance schedules.

The memos and polling posted to Axiom Strategies’ website provide DeSantis with important opposition research and strategic advice that can help his campaign — which, unlike the super PAC, can’t accept unlimited contributions — save a good amount of money.

A polling memo focusing on New Hampshire includes data on campaign and advertising messaging that would help DeSantis decide what to emphasize in his speeches and which ads his campaign will run.

This is an important form of coordination, as DeSantis and his super PAC have stated a clear division of labor between the two entities. The super PAC is handling the ground game — including paying for DeSantis’ campaign stops, a form of coordination first pioneered by Carly Fiorina in 2016 — and the campaign handles television ad buys, since candidates get lowest unit prices while super PACs must pay the full market price.

Failing to catch on, Fiorina dropped out of the presidential race in February 2016, shortly after the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.

Igor Bobic contributed reporting.