Democrats Are Helping Donald Trump Defeat Ron DeSantis

• American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, has launched a public research database dedicated to Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
• The database could benefit former President Donald Trump if DeSantis enters the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race.
• The website provides research reports about DeSantis on topics such as his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his position on Social Security and Medicare.

A public research database dedicated to Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis could benefit former President Donald Trump if DeSantis enters the 2024 presidential race.

American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC that supports Democratic candidates, announced the launch of its "Ron DeSantis opposition research hub" on Twitter on Monday.

The new online resource about DeSantis comes amid speculation that he will challenge Trump for the Republican nomination.

Nate Silver, founder of poll tracker FiveThirtyEight, suggested on Twitter that the database could benefit Trump by providing his presidential campaign with opposition research on a potential rival.

"Not sure I get the 13-dimensional chess of a Democratic Super PAC releasing opposition research on Republicans **during the Republican primary** but the practical effect is gonna be to help Trump since it's hard to have worse oppo on him than the stuff that's already out there," Silver said.

Silver was responding to a tweet from Julie Alderman Boudreau, presidential research director at American Bridge, who described the new resource as "the largest publicly available research database on @RonDeSantisFL."

Boudreau replied to Silver's tweet, saying: "If you're interested, we're also regularly updating our Trump Research Book regularly:" and sharing a link to that research.

'A Failed Governor'

On the DeSantis database's website, the group asks "Who is Ron DeSantis?" and says his campaign "hopes Americans will try to answer this question by looking at a few curated interviews with friendly news outlets, a heavily produced campaign video, and perhaps a glance at the glossy book pitched and edited by consultants."

The site describes DeSantis as "a failed governor. He's a threat to Social Security and Medicare. He's a corrupt and authoritarian career politician, and he's a policy extremist who's out of touch with the voters on every issue."

American Bridge has provided a series of research reports about DeSantis on topics including his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, his position on Social Security and Medicare, and his views on issues such as abortion and gun rights.

Playing With Fire

"This anti-DeSantis database is more evidence that there are a lot of Democrats who think that their best chance of holding the White House is if Trump is the Republican nominee in 2024," Thomas Gift, founding director of University College London's Centre on U.S. Politics, told Newsweek.

"The fear is that Biden couldn't beat the Florida governor in a one-on-one race, so the best strategy is to cut him off at the knees before it comes to that," he said.

Gift warned that the calculation "may be correct, but it's also playing with fire."

"Trump may be a weaker general election opponent than DeSantis," he added. "But if Trump did emerge victorious, the gambit would royally backfire. After all, there are few Democrats who—in their heart of hearts—think that DeSantis is just a big of a threat as Trump to American democracy."

Mark Shanahan, an associate professor at the University of Surrey in the U.K. and co-editor of The Trump Presidency: From Campaign Trail to World Stage, told Newsweek that in the age of social media "it's almost impossible to keep 'intelligence' information private, though it's unusual, to say the least, to see a PAC that has obviously invested a lot in compiling this information throwing it out for anyone to use."

"As soon as American Bridge released this information publicly, they essentially lost control over it and immediately the Research Book became a weapon not just for Democrats, but for anyone opposing Ron DeSantis," he said.

Shanahan said that it was clear "one of the biggest beneficiaries is Donald Trump, gaining a slew of insider information on his potentially chief challenger without having to put in any of the work pay for the insights—business just the way the former president likes it.

"It may be, of course, that the Democrats favor a Trump challenge for the White House and that by providing ammunition against DeSantis they help to nullify his threat in the GOP primary season. But it's a rather convoluted way to help the Democrat cause."

DeSantis has not officially declared that he will seek the Republican nomination but speculation has been rife that he will enter the race and Trump has repeatedly criticized him. At a rally in Waco, Texas, on March 25, Trump said that DeSantis had come to him "with tears in his eyes" to seek his endorsement during the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election.

Nonetheless, DeSantis has joined other prominent Republicans in strongly criticizing the decision of a Manhattan grand jury to indict Trump, accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of bringing "a flimsy indictment against a former president of the United States." Trump will be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon on charges related to a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Newsweek has reached out to American Bridge 21st Century via email for comment.