Inside the collapse of the Trump-DeSantis 'alliance of convenience'

[Zorro]

Behind an apparent close alliance, the two Republicans have racked up years of mutual suspicions fueling a 2024 grudge match

Backstage at a House Republican fundraiser in September 2018, President Donald Trump heard an urgent plea from his reelection campaign manager, Brad Parscale: They needed to talk about Ron DeSantis.

At the urging of DeSantis’s team, Parscale begged Trump to set aside a public tiff, according to people familiar with the conversation. DeSantis had infuriated Trump by contradicting his groundless claim that month that Democrats were inflating the death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Trump viewed the remark as a betrayal since his endorsement had just helped DeSantis win the Republican primary for governor of Florida.

Parscale argued that if DeSantis lost his race that fall, it would make it harder for Trump to win the state in 2020. It’s not just for him, Parscale told Trump, it’s for you.

Trump agreed, and their tension stayed below the surface — until this past fall, in anticipation of the Florida governor preparing to challenge Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination.

Now, their emerging rivalry is the latest twist on a years-long public alliance that belied private misgivings and suspicions, according to interviews with more than a dozen people, many of whom were present for key decisions and conversations, and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private interactions. Despite basking in each other’s reflected glow, Trump and DeSantis had a relationship based on mutual advantage rather than genuine closeness — “an alliance of convenience,” in the words of one person who knows both men.

https://wapo.st/3IbzleH

This is a grudge match I'm looking forward to witnessing.