Free Republic

Ron DeSantis may have lost the White House by handing his social media operation over to clueless youngsters who offended both donors and voters, while being outwitted by Donald Trump. And analysts warned his faltering campaign may have been strangled at birth by inexperienced staffers given free rein to use Nazi imagery and faked photos of Trump kissing his chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci. Many were posted online by third-parties but they were made in the war room, according to two former aides as well as text messages reviewed by The New York Times. But the most notorious was a...

The G.O.P. contender’s campaign tried to take on Donald Trump’s online army. Now it just wants to end the meme wars. ---------------------------------- In early May, as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida prepared to run for president, about a dozen right-wing social media influencers gathered at his pollster’s home for cocktails and a poolside buffet. The guests all had large followings or successful podcasts and were already fans of the governor. But Mr. DeSantis’s team wanted to turn them into a battalion of on-message surrogates who could tangle with Donald J. Trump and his supporters online. For some, however, the gathering...