Never work with animals, children or egotistical space billionaires. That’s a lesson Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida learned the hard way when he used Elon Musk’s Twitter Spaces social media platform to announce his run for US president.
Thousands of listeners were greeted with long silences, odd snatches of music and the sound of Musk, wouldbe kingmaker of the American right, muttering that “the servers are straining somewhat”. The glitch was soon being described as a “DeSaster”, one of the most embarrassing campaign fiascos in memory.
No one was more gleeful than Donald Trump, who regards DeSantis as his principal rival for the Republican nomination in 2024. But for those in the party who crave an alternative to the disgraced former president, it fuelled disquiet about his putative rival’s big match temperament – and encouraged them to seek other options. No one is writing DeSantis off,
