Ron DeSantis’ launch was a Trump 2.0 moment. Let’s hope it doesn’t last. | Opinion

We’ve known for months that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would probably run for president. Given how he’s governed Florida, he’s a great choice for the GOP — and maybe even the country. He appears competent, decisive, orderly and sharp.

But none of this was on display Wednesday night when he finally officially announced his campaign via a glitchy Twitter “Spaces,” with Elon Musk. A “space” enables a user to speak live while other users listen in — akin to a live podcast.

Politico writes: “The feed broke, connections got cut off, the hosts seemed confused. It was inauspicious. It also was a black mark on the candidate’s supposed trademarks — expert organization and a comfort with the vanguard of modern media.”

What made the glitch far worse is that neither DeSantis’ team nor Musk were interested in owning the damage or the botched launch. They just spun it as over-excitement.

David Sacks, who aided the online launch with Elon Musk, said, “I think you broke the internet there,” after the first Twitter space was abandoned and a second started.

“I think that creates just a scalability level that was unprecedented,” Sacks said of the half million users who’d been trying to log on, although only about 250,000 ended up on the final Twitter spaces.

Still, server issues that contributed to a messed-up announcement still signal a campaign that didn’t adequately prepare itself. What did they think was going to happen? A campaign roll-out is the first serious test of competency and leadership. Why didn’t anyone figure out if this could be done beforehand without glitches?

It reeks of arrogance or incompetence — and neither are good traits for a presidential contender. The result is that people feel gaslit even if it’s half-true that so many people decided to join, Twitter’s servers were at capacity and the internet “broke.”

The best thing DeSantis could have done is admit they had unforeseen issues or should have ironed out some kinks beforehand. This might go against the rules of politicking where “spinning” reigns, but we’re no longer in an era where there’s a man behind the curtain orchestrating the show we see from the other side. With the internet and smartphones, everyone can see everything: The American people aren’t stupid.

Here’s DeSantis billing himself as a Trump kind of guy without all the chaos and he not only launched with absolute chaos but then he had to spin it to look positive. Who does that sound like?

The good thing about a Twitter Spaces launch is the majority of Americans didn’t see it, don’t understand it, and probably don’t care. DeSantis can redeem himself. But people will care if DeSantis flubs in the future — and he undoubtedly will because everyone is imperfect — but doesn’t simply own it. Let’s hope this is just a sign of campaign incompetence, not a window into his character.

Campaign chaos, a constant need to spin bad news into “good,” and a never-ending stream of obfuscation became the hallmark of Donald Trump, the last several years. It’d be bad news for the DeSantis campaign, the GOP, and ultimately America if DeSantis continued this trend and became Trump 2.0.