The detonation of DeSantis's political fortunes is honestly stunning, because anyone with a brain could have seen that 2024 (for good or ill) was going to be Trump's year, just because it was going to be a referendum on all of the political malarkey and judicial zealotry. With a second term as Governor of Florida under his belt, DeSantis would have been a proverbial shoo-in, all else being equal.
But no; the signs indicated that he was going to run, and started coming out before he won re-election as Governor of Florida.
The fact he even went so far as to sign a law in April 2023 that allowed him to run for President without resigning the office of Governor (as had previously been required per statute) was just the proverbial mold on the rotting cake.