Trump will have a primary with fewer competitors than 2016 (not hard). DeSantis is the clear runner up.
The liberal media and fox news will swoon over DeSantis. Everything Trump says will be rejectedout of hand by the media but DeSantis could say and mean the exact same thing Trump says and will be praised. Because only the character of Trump is what they reject, not his politics. Therefore, through DeSantis, Trump's politics will become normalized.
Trump still beats DeSantis and the media will try to denormalized Trump's politics again as though nothing happened.
That's a pretty interesting idea for a genuinely cursed turn of events. Trump winning is the popular prediction here and I agree with it, but that normalization problem is something I didn't realize. Honestly Desantis would probably advocate for some policies that make Trump look like a moderate, because Desantis is purposeful and so that means he will probably drive hard at certain angles whereas Trump just sort of blindly turns the dial back and forth arbitrarily based on reactions he gets.
That's a pretty interesting idea for a genuinely cursed turn of events. Trump winning is the popular prediction here and I agree with it, but that normalization problem is something I didn't realize. Honestly Desantis would probably advocate for some policies that make Trump look like a moderate, because Desantis is purposeful and so that means he will probably drive hard at certain angles whereas Trump just sort of blindly turns the dial back and forth arbitrarily based on reactions he gets.