DeSantis to announce presidential bid Wednesday: Sources
- Sources say DeSantis will announce his candidacy on Twitter
- DeSantis is expected to be Trump's main GOP rival
- Experts have been anticipating DeSantis joining the 2024 race for months
(NewsNation) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to officially announce a presidential bid Wednesday on Twitter, according to NewsNation sources.
The highly anticipated announcement will happen during a conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk Wednesday evening.
Musk and DeSantis will be hosting the event at 6 p.m. ET on Twitter Spaces, the site’s platform for audio chats. It will be moderated by tech entrepreneur David Sacks, who is a confidant of Musk and a DeSantis supporter.
The same night, the DeSantis campaign will also release a launch video.
“Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis. This way he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him any questions,” Trump’s campaign adviser said in reaction to the announcement.
Wednesday morning, Trump weighed in on Truth Social saying DeSantis “can’t win” and was “a disloyal person.”
Though Musk has supported him in the past, it is unclear whether he will officially endorse DeSantis. Just last week, he retweeted Sen. Tim Scott’s campaign announcement with the caption “Let’s go!”
At The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Musk said he wasn’t planning on backing any particular candidate, but wants to use Twitter as a kind of public town square.
DeSantis has set other wheels in motion in the past 24 hours prior to his official announcement. This includes dropping the “fl” from his Twitter handle so it just reads @RonDeSantis.
The Florida legislature also sent a bill to the governor’s desk Tuesday, which would allow him to run for president without resigning from his position. He is yet to sign that bill.
DeSantis has invited donors to events in Miami for what is expected to be part of his official campaign launch. The timing of these events is critical as DeSantis can’t solicit donations for a presidential campaign before filing the candidacy paperwork.