Context is king.
Polling before Trump even announced is irrelevant.
In 2015 Trump announced June 16th, by Aug 4th he was polling at 24% with Jeb at 13%
In 2023 DeSantis announced May 25th, in early August Trump is at 53.4% and DeSantis is at 15.6%
Trump is polling much stronger than in 2015. DeSantis is trending down since March 15th.
May 25, 2023 DeSantis Announcement speech
Polls Aug
Trump 53.4%
DeSantis 15.6%
Ramaswamy 6.9%
Eliminating all other GOP candidates, Republican voters still showed overwhelming support for Trump in a hypothetical one-on-one matchup with DeSantis, with Trump earning 62 percent support compared to DeSantis’s 31 percent.
June 16, 2015 Donald Trump Announcement Speech in New York, NY.
Aug 4th Just days before the Republican presidential candidates square off in their first debate, Donald Trump is in the top spot among Republican primary voters nationally - 24 percent support him as the nominee. Trump is followed by Jeb Bush (13 percent), Scott Walker (10 percent), Mike Huckabee (eight percent), Ben Carson (six percent), Ted Cruz (six percent), and Marco Rubio (six percent). Further down are Rand Paul (4 percent) and Chris Christie (3 percent). Other contenders are below three percent. Nine percent of Republican primary voters say they don’t know who they want as the nominee at this point.
Another thing that desantis supporters/nevertrumpers refuse to acknowledge, is
Trump is running like an incumbent president.
Many people saw the fraud and election manipulation that occurred in 2020, and know biden may have won by votes, but could not by actual voters.
So they are supporting a known factor, rather imitations or wannabes