Ron DeSantis and Elon Musk: Two Wrongs Make a Disaster

Wonder why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign kickoff on Twitter was an unmitigated disaster? Read on. You should know that I told my editor I had an epiphany last night that something would go wrong.

See, apparently DeSantis doesn’t like to take advice and usually only listens to his wife, Casey. As a personal aside, couldn’t her parents come up with a better name than Casey?

Elon Musk is also known to be a bullhead when it comes to doing what he wants. One of his first acts as the new owner of Twitter was to fire essentially all of its communications team. I'm a lifelong comms guy, and the results of that decision speak for themselves.

One of these two thought it would be a genius idea to have DeSantis announce his candidacy for president in a live podcast-like interview on Twitter Spaces. If it was DeSantis’s idea, that means he was most likely turned away by Trump’s Truth Social, so he hoped for Musk’s Truth Social lite platform to boast about the discriminatory bills he has signed in Florida.

If the idea to host DeSantis was Musk’s, then this sounds like his pattern to give voice to bigots, having recently signed the racist Tucker Carlson to do something on Twitter to further hate. Musk also reinstated Donald Trump’s account on Twitter, and apparently, Trump is eager to jump back in.

And who is to blame for a meager 500,000 breaking Twitter? A sign appeared at the beginning that said "ended" before it even began. One Trump loyalist called it a DeSaster. Music played while Musk and DeSantis most likely started punching each other. Then a new link to the Twitter Space where only a little more than 100,000 tuned in while 400,000 tuned out. The new link broadcast what sounded like DeSantis reading from a script. It was B-R-O-K-E at the beginning and then B-O-R-I-N-G once it began. And will be B-A-D for DeSaster — or DeSantis — moving forward.

One thing is for sure: The 100,000 left at the end were either haters who jumped to the second link in the hopes of hearing Musk talk to DeSantis about their mutual bigotry and hate, or they joined to watch attempt number 2 crash and burn out — like DeSantis is about to do in the Republican presidential primary.

During his wickedly and woefully wrong chitchat with Musk, DeSantis said, "I think what was done with Twitter was really significant for the future of the country." I suppose he meant that Musk broke Twitter right in front of him, and so a broken, useless Twitter would be good for the country? Just like a broken, useless, and tone-deaf DeSantis would be bad for the country.

After he helped Musk break Twitter Spaces, DeSantis went to a fundraiser with wealthy GOP donors at the ritzy Four Seasons Hotel in Miami. DeSantis, who claims to be for the little guy, will be sitting down and sucking up to millionaire and billionaire fat cats at a five-star hotel.

Musk, who has no communications professionals around him to tell him no, differs from DeSantis, who does have a communications team. But DeSantis, like Musk, isn’t getting any advice, since his own staff is afraid to tell him right from wrong. Hence, the visual of the DeSantis campaign launch as a photo spread in Town & Country Magazine.

There is a lesson in Musk for DeSantis, but he’s too know-it-all to see it. Musk barreled into Twitter, similarly as a know-it-all, and upended the social platform, with impulsive decisions about firing people, the blue check mark debacle, a surge in misinformation surging, hate speech hijacking the platform, advocating free speech – only if it parallels Musk’s speech, reinstating not only Trump but hundreds of banned bigoted accounts, and ignoring the vitriol of those bigots and haters.

Twitter is a hot mess thanks to the hot-headed Musk, and the similarly hot-headed DeSantis is about to watch his campaign turn into a hot mess too, all echoing the disheveled debut of DeSantis on Twitter.

It's a vicious circle.

Running a presidential campaign is fraught with failure — if you don’t have the right people around you to prevent you from stepping in doo-doo. Trying to address millions of voters spread across deviating demographics is like walking on a tightrope stuffed with razor blades. One person’s opinion does not win primaries or caucuses, or win over skeptical voters, and for someone like DeSantis who is resistant to being corrected, peril will ensue.

When he mistook a landslide reelection victory for a license for authoritarian rule, DeSantis’s bullheadedness went too far, most specifically with racist, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-abortion measures that, on top of climate change, will also sink Florida into the darkest depths. None of these measures – it’s worth repeating – none of the archaic bills DeSantis signed into law are good for Florida. They were only planks for his extremist platform. Floridians are going to soon find out that all of what DeSantis has been signing is senseless, dangerous, and illegal.

When the proverbial legislative chickens come home to roost, there will be a slew of lawsuits submitted, walkouts from high school students, women leaving the Republican and independent parties in droves, and corporate America taking a pass on doing business in Florida.

Speaking of which, how moronic was it for DeSantis, against all the counsel of his advisers, to wage war on America’s most beloved corporation, Disney? Mickey Mouse is going to make DeSantis look like a derogatory Mickey Mouse — silly, childish, and worthless. Disney is going to sue the ears off of an inept DeSantis and a defenseless Florida.

Watch how Disney squashes DeSantis in a way that makes the company look like the good guy, which should be easy since most people detest DeSantis. That includes Miami and arguably the state’s favorite son, Dwyane Wade. He took his family and moved out of Florida to protect his trans daughter. So many Floridians secretly wish they had the economic resources to do so, too. Nevertheless, Wade will be around to remind everyone about DeSantis’s cruelty, both in Florida and around the country.

The moral of the story is that you can’t run a state on your own fruition at the same time you are running a nationwide presidential campaign on your own instincts. They are two different animals. Twenty-one million people reside in the Sunshine State, and over 300 million wildly divergent live in the U.S.

Likewise, there are over 300 million people who are on Twitter and over 127,000 who work at Tesla. You can’t run Tesla at the same time you’re running a wildly divergent social media platform.

When two obstinate, pigheaded bullheads join forces, the net result is zero — they just cancel each other out. They can also break Twitter together — arrogant twins joined at the hip. Two wrongs that can't do anything right.

Views expressed in The Advocate’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.