Ron DeSantis Showers Elon Musk With Praise Amid Feud With Trump — But Warns Against Third Party Gambit
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) showered formed Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk with praise on Monday, agreeing in principle with his critique of the Republican Party.
“I think Elon Musk has been, you know, one of the most innovative entrepreneurs not just in our country’s history, but probably in world history. And I think he’s done a lot. I think that he’s got a lot more left in the tank, obviously,” began DeSantis. “I’ve been a big supporter of the idea of the DOGE, because the federal government’s spending way too much money. We’ve adopted that in Florida, even though we have a budget surplus and are paying down debt, and we have the second lowest spending per capita of all 50 states. We’re still doing it in Florida because you always wanna do better. But when Elon was in the-, at DOGE, there were grants that had been done that we rejected in Florida. We would call Elon, they would cancel it immediately.”
“And so there was a lot that was done that was very, very positive. And so I think i’ve been a big fan of what what he’s done,” he continued. “The problem is when you do another party, especially if you’re running on some of the issues that he talks about, you know, that would end up if he funds Senate candidates and House candidates in competitive races that would likely end up meaning the Democrats would win all the competitive Senate and House races.
“And so look, I’m a Republican, you know, I don’t want to see that happen. I think if you want to, you know, get involved and hold accountable, you know we do have a problem in the Republican Party with these D.C. congressmen. They always run saying there’s out of control spending, and they’re going to spend less, and they never do it. And so there’s a gap between the campaign rhetoric and then the performance. Elon was doing DOGE, and a lot of Congress didn’t want anything to do with actually adopting the DOGE cuts, just like they haven’t wanted to adopt the Trump executive orders on immigration, and all these other things, which I think you have to adopt in law if you want them to have staying power. So I think there is a lot a frustration with the gap between the rhetoric in their district, and the performance once they get into D.C.,” argued DeSantis. “But the way you do that is expose that in a primary and show that there’s another way forward.”
The former 2024 presidential candidate who kicked off his campaign for the White House on a livestream with Musk went on to submit that the billionaire ought to throw his political weight behind adding a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
Musk announced the launch of his America Party over the weekend, causing Trump to deem Musk a “TRAIN WRECK” in a blistering Truth Social post.
