Ron DeSantis’ first foray into world affairs as a potential presidential candidate hasn’t gone well. DeSantis’ dismissive description of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “a territorial dispute” that doesn’t merit U.S. attention spawned a gale of fervent pushback from top Senate Republicans and others in the party.
It has highlighted what one politician described as a “civil war” within the GOP over Ukraine and American foreign policy generally. If so, it’s a conflict that the believers in traditional Republican dedication to protecting democracy abroad must win — and that the modern-day isolationists of the party’s populist-MAGA wing (Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley prominent among them) must lose.
The rift began when Fox News host Tucker Carlson released responses to a written survey of potential 2024 president candidates. DeSantis, the Florida governor widely viewed as a likely contender with MAGA voters who are ready to move on from former President Donald Trump, answered regarding Ukraine in pretty much the way Trump himself did.
