Florida Governor Ron DeSantis talks with journalists after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the latter's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, 24 April 2023.
Reuters spoke to 16 political operatives and donors close to DeSantis to reconstruct the roughly 10-week period from mid-March - before Trump's first criminal indictment in New York - to DeSantis' campaign launch on May 24.
The unforced errors in that early stage had a lasting impact on DeSantis' campaign, they acknowledged.
"The president was dead set on attacking Ron DeSantis as early as possible," Chris LaCivita, Trump's co-campaign manager, told Reuters.
LESSONS LEARNEDAides say DeSantis' campaign has sought to make some strategic adjustments.
Persons:
Ron DeSantis, Fumio Kishida, KIMIMASA, Donald Trump's, DeSantis, Trump, coy, Trump's, Chris LaCivita, MAGA, LaCivita, Ford O'Connell, unelectable, Robert Bigelow, Ryan Tyson, David Polyansky, Evan Power, Power, Gram Slattery, Jim Oliphant, Nathan Layne, Alexandra Ulmer, Ross Colvin, Daniel Flynn
Organizations:
Rights, Trump, Reuters, Iowa, TRUMP, Twitter, Republican, Social Security, Medicare, Inc, intoned, Conservatives, DeSantis, U.S, Congress, Republicans, Florida Republican Party, San, Thomson
Locations:
Florida, Tokyo, Japan, New York, Iowa, Tallahassee, Lago, San Francisco