Since about mid-2015, no man has been more hated by the mainstream media and their Democrat allies than Donald Trump. The hysteria surrounding the now-former president has essentially not ceased since he came down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his run for the White House.

Things have been so insane that the moniker “orange man bad” was coined. Everything Trump does is scrutinized in the tenth degree. Anonymous sources constantly form the basis of press stories that often turn out to be false. To this day, Trump is still accused of being a white supremacist foreign agent for the Russians.

Is a new contender for the left’s ire stepping to the fore, though? According to The New York Times, the answer is yes. Gov. Ron DeSantis is now worse than Trump.

In Opinion

Ron DeSantis “may be a more competent Trump in terms of his ability to use the levers of state to amass power, but he’s also meaner and more rigid, without the soft edges and eccentricity of the actual Donald Trump,” writes @jbouie. https://t.co/iG8mv63mOW

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 17, 2022

Well, you might say, Donald Trump is a bully, too. Yes, he is. But Donald Trump is also a lifelong celebrity with a public persona that is as much about “The Apprentice” and even “Home Alone 2” as it is about his political career. What’s more, Trump has the skills of a celebrity. He’s funny, he has stage presence, and he has a kind of natural charisma. He can be a bully in part because he can temper his cruelty and egoism with the performance of a clown or a showman. He can persuade an audience that he’s just kidding — that he doesn’t actually mean it.

Ron DeSantis cannot. He may be a more competent Trump in terms of his ability to use the levers of state to amass power, but he’s also meaner and more rigid, without the soft edges and eccentricity of the actual Donald Trump.

Did you get all that? You see, Donald Trump is a bully, but he’s also soft around the edges (huh?) and is able to tame his ego by telling jokes or something. Meanwhile, DeSantis is worse because he’s more competent in using the levers of power but doesn’t have the ability to temper his “cruelty.”

I’m reading this and just thinking how nonsensical it is. One, DeSantis is likable, which is why he has some of the highest favorable ratings among major politicians (namely, those who have demanded a national stage in the last year). Two, Trump is not just some clown that doesn’t follow through. His administration was ripe with tangible actions that enraged the left on a policy level.

Yes, DeSantis is more strategic, and by virtue more successful in pushing his agenda, but it’s not night and day, and I say that as someone who makes no secret that I want DeSantis in 2024. Besides, when has Trump ever persuaded audiences that he doesn’t really mean what he says? That certainly doesn’t happen at his rallies.

All of this just seems like revisionist history. Democrats have never seen Trump as a harmless comedian. They’ve accused him of being a Nazi, for cripes sake. But this was always inevitable. As DeSantis has become more and more effective at owning the left, the rehabilitation of Trump was the next step. You see, he’s bad, but he’s not that bad.

Here’s the conclusion I draw from this. While the left hates Trump, and believe me, they freaking hate him, they fear DeSantis for different reasons. They think they can keep the former president in check with endless attacks and government investigations. They are less confident that DeSantis can’t just outmaneuver them at every turn. The consternation over the Florida man only gets more hilarious from here, so buckle up.