A new Yahoo News/You Gov survey of Republican voters finds short little bastard Florida Gov Ron DeSantis leading disgraced former President Trump 47 percent to 42 percent for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination among Republican voters, a swing from an October Yahoo News/YouGov survey finding the Orange God Emperor ahead of his upstart fascist rival 45 to 35.

Trump however still leads DeSantis 53 to 39 percent among those who identified themselves as “strong” Republicans in the survey, signaling extreme loyalty in the MAGA cult that may not carry over to DeSantis should he prevail in the primary. The other, possibly more important issue here for Ronnie is that the main Trump vs DeSantis question was presented as a simple head-to-head, with the remainder answering “don’t know.” When it’s a full field with 10 other candidates, Trump’s 35 percent holds, while DeSantis’s support drops to 33 percent, suggesting Republicans would do well to study how quickly and Democrats unified around Biden in the 2020 primary season, when all the second tier candidates dropping out early and endorsing him almost simultaneously to close the door on a protracted Biden vs Bernie fight. Trump won’t drop out graciously like Bernie Sanders did in 2020, but that sort of unity around DeSantis should be enough for him to clinch the nomination.

Doesn’t mean it’ll happen. It probably won’t. Democrats might often be a shitshow of a party, but nobody invents novel new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like Republicans can.