IN-DEPTH: Trump, DeSantis and Their Surrogates at War on Social Media

Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are engaged in a heated war of words, and the battlefield is social media. Hardly a day goes by without sniping. Trump, a declared presidential candidate for 2024, lashes out relentlessly at DeSantis, while the likely-but-undeclared Republican candidate takes subtler swings at the former political ally.

Meanwhile, various surrogates pummel the presumed opponent of their favorite, day and night, on Twitter and Trump’s own Truth Social.

Trump’s Latest Posts

• Express outrage about DeSantis’s current trip abroad to meet with world leaders
• Question DeSantis’s ability to remove the stain from his failing campaign
• Mock DeSantis’s poll numbers

DeSantis, for now, keeps his own Twitter missives, on accounts attributed to him as an individual, looking like a governor and potential president. Posts show him giving speeches, signing bills, and otherwise addressing the people’s business.

With about nine months until any primary voting starts, others are also weary of the infighting. Political science professor emerita at the University of South Florida, Susan MacManus, lamented, “People are saying, ‘I don’t know if I can take a year and a half of it. Will it be tit for tat for a year and a half?”

The Name Game

Trump has tried out various nicknames for his presumed primary opponent on social media and in speeches, including “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “Ron DeSanctus.”

Impact of Press Coverage

Twitter and other social media have proven effective tools and weapons for politicians. They wouldn’t be, though, if the press and media didn’t make them so, said Tobe Berkovitz, a political media consultant and emeritus professor of advertising at Boston University.

“If the media ignored Truth Social, Trump’s platform, if they didn’t cover Trump’s posts and DeSantis’s posts, the average voter wouldn’t even know these things exist,” he told The Epoch Times.

Online Campaigning Generates Cash

Trump has used social media brilliantly, not only to speak to his followers, but also to raise money from people making small contributions, Donahue says. He compared Trump with the late Jesse Helms, who used direct mail for the same purpose.

“Helms was one of the top fundraisers you ever saw,” Donahue said of Helms, a Republican senator for North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. “Direct mail was expensive, and now you have Facebook. And Trump’s back on Facebook.”

Trump raised more than $