Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis channeled Donald Trump in the immigration platform he announced Monday. In doing so, he seemed to hope winning ownership of an issue that defined the former presidentā€™s 2016 campaign would increase his standing in a crowded GOP field.

DeSantisā€™s immigration plan is reflective of his central pitch to voters: He is the MAGA candidate who lacks all the legal baggage that Trump brings, including two indictments and several ongoing civil and criminal investigations.

Some of the immigration policies DeSantis proposed are directly taken from Trumpā€™s playbook: eliminating birthright citizenship, forcing immigrants to remain in Mexico while applying for asylum, and ending ā€œcatch-and-releaseā€ policies under which some nonviolent immigrants are released into the US while awaiting deportation proceedings.

DeSantis claimed in remarks Monday in Eagle Pass, Texas, that his platform is ā€œmore aggressiveā€ than what Trump has pushed in terms of empowering state and local officials on border enforcement, as well as using ā€œdeadly forceā€ on the border to stop drug traffickers and anyone else ā€œdemonstrating hostile intent.ā€

But while DeSantis is running to Trumpā€™s right on issues including abortion and Covid-19, he hasnā€™t really broken new ground on immigration. And that might be a problem for the governor, who is struggling to carve out a unique lane in the primary and articulate to Republican primary voters who donā€™t seem all that concerned about the former presidentā€™s legal troubles why heā€™s a better bet.

ā€œHis entire image and brand levers off Donald Trumpā€™s brand. To me, thatā€™s not a road to success,ā€ said Vinny Minchillo, a Republican strategist based in Texas. ā€œI think voters are seeing through that. When they see DeSantis roll out essentially the Trump immigration platform, they say, ā€˜We already got that.ā€™ā€ What DeSantisā€™s immigration platform means for the 2024 primary

DeSantis is trying to make a nuanced argument in response to the primary electorateā€™s love of the former president: that not only is he Trumpier than Trump on many issues, including immigration, but that heā€™s more effective than Trump at implementing a conservative agenda.

DeSantis argues this experience legislating to the right in Florida proves heā€™s the man to get conservative policy done. For example, heā€™s promised to follow through on what Trump started in constructing the southern border wall, which he noted Monday was unfinished. Trump allocated some $15 billion for its construction, much of which came from the Defense Departmentā€™s budget, but only completed 453 miles of ā€œborder wall systemā€ across the entire 1,954-mile US-Mexico border.

Trumpā€™s supporters frequently chanted ā€œBuild the wall!ā€ on the campaign trail in 2016, and it continues to remain a popular proposal, as shown in an August 2022 NPR/Ipsos poll where 46 percent of Americans said they supported its construction.

ā€œWhat weā€™re saying is no excuses on this,ā€ DeSantis said Monday, without mentioning Trump by name. ā€œGet the job done. Make it happen. We donā€™t want hollow rhetoric. We donā€™t want empty promises.ā€

Trump responded on TruthSocial, saying that DeSantis is a ā€œfailed candidate, whose sole purpose in making the trip was to reiterate the fact that he would do all of the things done by me in creating the strongest Border, by far, in U.S. history. A total waste of time!ā€

The interaction highlighted the challenges for DeSantis in stepping out from under the shadow of his one-time mentor, whose endorsement arguably won him the governorship in 2018. Essentially, though DeSantisā€™s pitch may be that heā€™s a more focused, professional Trump, Trump can always retort that he actually is Trump.

DeSantis has also tried to draw contrasts with Trump on Covid-19 and abortion, hitting back at the former presidentā€™s recent assertion that New York handled the pandemic better than Florida did, and suggesting Trumpā€™s abortion policies are overly permissive.

But itā€™s not clear that those efforts to establish himself as the true conservative next to Trump are making a difference with primary voters, who still prefer the former president by more than 30 percentage points on average. And certainly, hardline positions on the pandemic and abortion wonā€™t serve DeSantis among independents and swing voters if he were to win the nomination.

ā€œWhen you get these speeches, whatā€™s the message that pops with voters?ā€ Minchillo said. ā€œI just donā€™t think he has set himself apart enough from Trump to make a difference.ā€

  • melmc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Itā€™s easy to see why DeSantis would be a better version of Trump. He has more personal integrity and he is less of a blowhard. He actually gets things done instead of just talking big.