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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
David Smith in Washington

DeSantis’s limp start to 2024 race delights Trump but battle is not over

Ron DeSantis looking glum next to an American flag
Ron DeSantis has given mixed messages on US support for Ukraine, picked a thankless fight with Disney and failed to impress in person. Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters

Never work with animals, children or egotistical space billionaires. There’s a lesson in there that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida learned the hard way when he used Elon Musk’s Twitter Spaces social media platform to announce his run for US president.

Thousands of listeners were greeted with long silences, odd snatches of music and the sound of Musk, would-be kingmaker of the American right, muttering that the “the servers are straining somewhat”. The glitch was soon being described as a “DeSaster”, one of the most embarrassing campaign fiascos in memory.

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