So much for Ron DeSantis’ big 2024 fundraising haul

| 3:00 pm EDT May 28, 2023
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On Thursday, Ron DeSantis managed to get multiple major media outlets to run positive headlines implying that his 2024 campaign launch event created public momentum for him and resulted in a huge fundraising windfall. CBS News even ran with the lede that DeSantis raised a “record $8.2 million in the first 24 hours after announcing his 2024 presidential campaign.”

But here’s the kicker: it turns out DeSantis’ people also held a separate fundraising event immediately after the campaign launch, and that those those dollars are also included in the $8.2 million tally. CBS News is admitting that “The breakdown of how much each method raised is unclear.”

In other words, DeSantis didn’t actually set any campaign launch fundraising records after all. Instead his people timed a separate fundraising event with the specific intent of making it look like DeSantis’ public launch was greeted with record setting enthusiasm.

This isn’t surprising. Ron DeSantis’ entire 2024 gambit has been based on fakery. He spent all of 2021 and 2022 sitting on the sidelines and letting the mainstream media (on both sides) build him up as some super-savvy, super-disciplined, more charismatic and less prickly version of Donald Trump. Then he finally hit the national stage over the past couple months, and he’s turned out to be an erratic dimwit whose personality ranges from nonexistent to just plain weird.

But if nothing else, DeSantis does appear to understand that after the media (on the left and right) spent two years building him up so it could milk him for ratings during the primary season, the media would still prefer to portray his campaign in a positive light if possible. After all, the media doesn’t want to have to give up on the DeSantis ratings cash cow just yet. If the media allows him to fully become a punchline right now, he’s done. So of course the media is willing to go along with his sleight of hand when it comes to his campaign launch fundraising numbers. Why not? The media has to keep him on his feet for now, if only so it can get ratings by punching him later.

It’s all a good reminder that this early on, the manner in which these 2024 presidential candidates are portrayed by the media has no correlation to reality. Ron DeSantis’ primary poll numbers have dropped in half over the past two months. Even most Republicans around the nation now think he’s a punchline. His cratering poll numbers make clear that there’s no public enthusiasm for his launch whatsoever. The media can pretend otherwise, as it sets up its 2024 ratings strategy. But none of that fantasyland stuff ends up having any correlation to reality.

Ron DeSantis is toast. He might find a way to turn things around later, if he ever figures out how not to be Ron DeSantis. But for now he’s in the burnt toast discard pile. And nothing the major media outlets say or do can change that.