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Steve Bannon praised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday for moving "to the right" of Donald Trump after voicing frustration with the former president in recent weeks.
DeSantis is considered one of Trump's top potential opponents in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Unlike Trump, DeSantis has not formally announced plans to run, but polls find strong support for him among conservative voters, suggesting he could be cutting into Trump's base as the ex-president's campaign flounders.
Trump has been hit with myriad controversies in recent weeks, facing rebuke for endorsing candidates who lost key races in the midterm elections, dining with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and calling to "terminate" the U.S. Constitution. In addition to receiving condemnation from usual Trump opponents, his supporters have also turned up their criticism.
Earlier this month, Bannon called out Trump for not using his political power to take on top priorities for conservative voters including amnesty and a massive spending bill aimed at keeping the government open—as well as his "major announcement" of a $99 NFT digital trading card of himself.
Amid his remarks criticizing the former president, Bannon offered praise for DeSantis in a Gettr post Saturday morning, specifically pointing to DeSantis' position on the COVID-19 vaccine.
"DeSantis Moves to The Right of President Trump —Notably on: The Vaxx," Bannon wrote.
The Florida governor has emerged as a leading critic of vaccine mandates. This week, he asked a grand jury to investigate if Floridians were misled about the vaccine's safety by manufacturers. While Trump has also opposed mandates, he has also spoken out in favor of the vaccine, taking credit for its initial rollout at the end of his presidential term.
Trump's support for vaccines has left him at odds with some segments of the GOP base, as many Republican voters rejected the COVID-19 vaccine despite health officials maintaining it is safe and prevents serious illness when a person becomes infected with the deadly virus.
Joe Lowndes, a professor of political science at the University of Oregon, told Newsweek on Saturday that while pandemic politics will not likely be a major issue in the 2024 election, vaccines offer DeSantis an opportunity to "outflank Trump from the right."
Still, he questioned how much traction the vaccine issue will have among GOP voters—so long as COVID-19 does not make a "very major" resurgence—as neither Democrats nor Republicans are pushing for vaccine mandates nearly three years after the first cases were reported in the United States.
"It's unclear what kind of promises DeSantis could make that would have any teeth," Lowndes added.
DeSantis, should he decide to run, will present himself as a more responsible version of Trump who has already enacted the policies surrounding contentious culture war issues such as rights for transgender people or critical race theory (CRT) into law in Florida, according to Lowndes. DeSantis could benefit from the electorate becoming exhausted from Trump's legal issues, but he still may have trouble connecting with voters, Lowndes said.
"Appealing to a national audience is different than appealing to a statewide audience," Lowndes added. "I think that DeSantis is going to have trouble becoming a candidate who is comfortable on the campaign trail at that level."
While Bannon has voiced frustration with Trump, he has not said he would support another candidate against him in the 2024 Republican primary and has maintained support for his policies. In a previous statement to Newsweek, Bannon described Trump as the "leader of the Republican Party and MAGA/America First, the most powerful political Movement in American History."
Meanwhile, he also joined other Republicans in criticizing Trump's NFT rollout.
"I can't do this anymore," Bannon said in response to the announcement. "He's one of the greatest presidents in history, but I gotta tell you, whoever ... business partner [or] anybody on the comms team and anybody at Mar-a-Lago ... and I love the folks down there, but we're at war—they ought to be fired today!"
Bannon's remarks come after a poll found support for Trump plummet among Republican voters. The USA Today/Suffolk University poll found DeSantis winning support from 56 percent of GOP primary voters compared to Trump's 33 percent.
Newsweek reached out to Bannon's spokesperson for comment.
Update 12/17/2022, 4:11 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from Lowndes.
About the writer
Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more