View from the right: tomorrow's Trump

Perhaps the only person who triggers progressives as much as Elon Musk these days is Ron DeSantis. Every week, it seems, Florida's Republican governor takes some new action that enrages the left and delights the right. His poll numbers are rising, which is bad news for Democrats — because DeSantis is showing the way forward for Trumpism without Donald Trump.

Like Trump, DeSantis is a counterpuncher — minus the political baggage. He punched back against the left-wing education establishment, signing a law banning critical race theory in schools. He punched back against Disney, moving to take away its special tax status after the Burbank, Calif.-based company demagogued his bill to protect the parental rights of Floridians. He punched back against Big Tech, signing a law that prohibits social media companies from censoring or de-platforming political candidates. He punched back against race-baiting Democrats who slandered GOP election integrity laws as "Jim Crow 2.0," signing a sweeping voting overhaul bill that strengthens voter identification requirements, prohibits the mass mailing of ballots and bans ballot harvesting.

Most important, DeSantis punched back against the perpetual lockdown establishment and turned Florida into a bastion of freedom during the pandemic. He put seniors at the front of the line for vaccines, banned vaccine passports, restricted vaccine and mask mandates, suspended local emergency orders, and granted full pardons for all nonviolent offenses and remitted all fines related to COVID restrictions by local governments. And in July 2020, his state education department ordered Florida schools to reopen in the fall for full-time in-person learning — limiting the catastrophic learning losses that have plagued children in other parts of the country.

His strategy is working. Americans have been voting for DeSantis with their feet, fleeing high-tax, COVID-restrictive blue states and flocking to freedom in Florida. After languishing in the mid-40s last year, DeSantis's approval rating in the state has risen to 59% in a new Saint Leo University poll, with just 37% disapproving — almost President Joe Biden's approval rating turned upside down.

DeSantis is on track to win reelection this fall by a wider margin than the 3.4 points Trump won two years ago. DeSantis leads his most likely opponent, congressman and former governor Charlie Crist, by almost nine points in the RealClearPolitics polling average. He's ahead of his next-most-likely opponent, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, by 13 points.

If DeSantis secures a decisive victory in November, he could prove a formidable challenger to Biden and an attractive alternative to Trump. While Biden continues to reach new lows in approval, polls also show most Americans still don't wish Trump were back in the Oval Office. A Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey finds that majorities do not want either Trump (55%) or Biden (63%) to run in 2024, with almost 6 in 10 saying they would be open to supporting a third-party candidate if faced with a rematch between the two. If they do both run again, Trump holds a mere two-point edge over Biden -- a statistical tie.

The fact that Trump is deadlocked with Biden — whose approval has plummeted further and faster than any modern president — should be a red flag for Republicans. Right now, 69% of Republicans say they want Trump to run again, according to a CBS News-YouGov poll. But after seeing the disastrous policies Biden has implemented — the worst inflation in 40 years, the worst crime wave since the 1990s, the worst border crisis in American history — they also know that the 2024 election is one Republicans absolutely have to win. If Republican primary voters are convinced that Trump cannot prevail, they might back someone else.

DeSantis is putting himself in a strong position to be that someone else. He understands that Republicans don't want a nominee like Mitt Romney, who let Democrats walk all over him without fighting back. They want a counterpuncher. DeSantis is building a record in office that will send a powerful message to Republican primary voters: I'll give you everything you liked about Trump — except I will win.

Marc A. Thiessen writes for The Washington Post.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Commentary: Is Ron DeSantis the Trump of the future?