On Wednesday afternoon, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finally officially announced his presidential campaign on Twitter. The announcement was made with the help of Twitter owner Elon Musk, and was moderated by tech entrepreneur David Sacks.
DeSantis covered an array of topics from woke culture, the border crisis, and the lack of leadership under the current president, Joe Biden.
The launch was met with a rocky start with audio problems and multiple site crashes. Eventually, after about 10 minutes, DeSantis announced his candidacy, followed by a long scripted speech. The launch was met with mixed reactions. While no candidate has announced their presidency in such a setting, many on social media criticized DeSantis his long, unexciting rants and the softball questions he received.
Former president Trump, DeSantis’ GOP rival, took aim at DeSantis on Truth Social during his launch, saying “Rob,” My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!).”
REACTIONS:
DeSantis is making JEB! look high energy right now.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 24, 2023
Is this an AI version of Ron DeSantis?! So scripted and boring!
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) May 24, 2023
Folks: We can now all relive Ron DeSantis' humiliating failure to launch! Watch as DeSantis, Elon Musk, and David Sacks struggle to get Twitter Spaces to work in their initial 20+ minute attempt. pic.twitter.com/MyiX1yVKyb
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) May 24, 2023
I'm sorry, but Ron DeSantis sounds like a boring politician. It's late in Spain and this is not helping me stay up to listen.
If it was Trump, I wouldn't be able to sleep.
— Ada Lluch 🇪🇸 (@ada_lluch) May 24, 2023
I’m running for president to lead our Great American Comeback. pic.twitter.com/YmkWkLaVDg
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) May 24, 2023
Donald Trump on Truth: pic.twitter.com/gsl7AfNLM0
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 24, 2023
Fox News, which was snubbed for the announcement, is going after DeSantis aggressively: pic.twitter.com/roObJO8Ac1
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) May 24, 2023
Well if the crashing polls weren’t a big enough sign, the crashing Twitter Space is erasing all doubt
It’s not the right time for DeSantis to run
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) May 24, 2023