Trump says space force general will lead Golden Dome missile defense project – as it happened
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These are challenging days for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the man who would have been king. Barely two and a half years since his landslide re-election and anointment as DeFuture" of the Republican party in a fawning New York Post cover, he stands isolated from the national political stage, feuding with his once blindingly loyal Florida legislature, and limping towards the finish line of his second term with an uncertain pathway beyond.
It has been, in the view of many analysts, a fall of stunning velocity and magnitude. And while few are willing to completely rule out a comeback for a 46-year-old politician who was the darling of the Republican hard right until he dared to challenge Donald Trump for his party's 2024 presidential nomination, it is also clear that everything has changed.
He's lost the ability to push things through. He's lost that luster he had that at one time seemed like he could do no wrong in Republican conservative circles. He's definitely come back down to earth and some of it is his own doing because if you govern with an autocratic style, that doesn't usually make you a lot of allies.
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