Free Republic

...has the deep state won? This is how it seems to be shaping up...even if it's DeSantis or some other republican, the deep state will have won. This explains Trump's poll numbers. The repub establishment and the media just don't get it.

Former President Donald Trump claimed the straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit on Saturday barely 24-hours after his federal indictment was publicly unsealed. He surged past Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his nearest challenger for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination, by 40.3 percent to 35.8 percent, the Washington Examiner reports.

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis will officially enter the 2024 U.S. presidential race next week, according to two sources familiar with the decision, immediately becoming Donald Trump's biggest rival for the Republican nomination and shaking up a contest that largely has been one-sided. DeSantis will likely file paperwork declaring his candidacy on May 25 to coincide with a donor meeting in Miami, with a more formal launch the week of May 29, according to a source. The invitation for the May 25 event stated that donors would be put to “work,” an apparent allusion to...