Donald Trump appears to be sharpening his long knives this night, taking aim at his rivals and perceived enemies, one day after being energized by groups of cultists in New Hampshire and South Carolina.  As the earlier post (above right) on his failing social media app shows, Trump sees Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as his chief early rival, and he plans to knock the already undersized DeSantis down a few notches.

Going after Karl Rove, seen as a supporter for DeSantis for recognizing his surprisingly strong reelection performance, Trump hopes to show that he’s now the new Republican establishment, touting an outlandish victory percentage without mentioning (1) he’s lying; (2) his endorsed candidates who weren’t incumbents or Red State successors lost every statewide race except the JD Vance race; and (3) the GOP he claims to lead had a historically bad performance in the midterms.

Note, however, the framing of Trump’s screed against DeSantis merits examination–and before anyone even suggests it, this is not a defense of the Florida fool; it’s an exam of Trump’s techniques.  The “revelations about Ron DeSanctimonious” Trump mentions are his own creation:  we covered the video of his comments on his plane here.  Trump’s talking about what he talked about like someone else said it.  Psychiatrically, that’s a problem, but it’s also his version of Fox’s “some people say.”  His notes about “shutting down Florida and its beaches”–one of the few coronavirus protections DeSantis did enforce before flipping to complete anti-science positions–will be the point Trump hammers him on throughout the campaign.  Florida lives and dies by tourism; Trump will hammer home the pain.