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.

Trump, a declared presidential candidate for 2024, relentlessly lashes out at DeSantis, while the likely-but-undeclared Republican candidate takes subtler swings at the former political ally. Various surrogates pummel the presumed opponent of their favorite, day and night, on Twitter and Trump’s own Truth Social.

Some of Trump’s latest posts express outrage about DeSantis’s current trip abroad to meet with world leaders. He wrote about that on his platform on April 24.

“The ‘Consultants’ are sending DeSanctus [sic], and demanding he go immediately, on an emergency Round the World tour of U.S representative population countries, like South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Israel, in order to up his game and see if he can remove the stain from his failing campaign. Bad 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.

The Impact of Press Coverage

Twitter and other social media have proven effective tools and weapons for politicians. They wouldn’t be, however, if the press and media didn’t make them so, according to 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.

Social media also allow campaigns to get videos out for a fraction of the cost of television ads. Then, the press and media start talking about them. Ultimately, millions of people might watch them if they go viral.

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 said. 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 $4 million, much of it from small donors, in the first quarter of 2023, according to the Federal Election Commission.