DeSantis assures Iowa Republicans he can lead GOP beyond Biden.

During a May 31 campaign speech, Florida Governor and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis warned that if President Joe Biden is reelected, Democrats will “pack” the Supreme Court, eliminate the Electoral College, and make the District of Columbia a state. This would ensure their party has two reliable additions to the U.S. Senate.

DeSantis told about 250 Iowans at Sun Valley Barn, a wedding venue in Pella, that Republicans “are not going to get a mulligan in the 2024 election” if they don’t win across the board, from school boards to the White House. He’s the man with the “courage to lead, the strength to win” in order to ensure Democrat’s plans don’t succeed by defeating Biden in November 2024.

The governor launched his candidacy on May 24, following five months where he visited 14 states and four countries while not formally campaigning. His Iowa swing kicks off a 12-city tour across three early-primary states. After stumping in New Hampshire and South Carolina, DeSantis will return to Iowa on June 3 for a fundraiser with U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

As DeSantis spoke in Cedar Rapids, GOP 2024 presidential front-runner, former President Donald Trump, arrived in Des Moines where he has a full slate of campaign events set for June 1.

DeSantis, 44, maintains it is going to take a Republican president at least two terms to undo the damage the Biden administration has done to government institutions and the education system, among others.

DeSantis’s Plans for the Presidency

• If elected, DeSantis said he would “liberate the domestic energy industry, reinvigorate the military,” and fire FBI Director Christopher Wray “on Day One.”
• The governor said he would “reverse Biden’s border policies,” declare a national emergency, and “shut down the border” with Mexico until the federal government regains control.
• As president, he would clamp down on spending and spend on what matters: the military, education, and children, said the father of three—with his oldest being 6-years-old.
• DeSantis said that with him as president, the whole “debt deal” drama would be ended and the federal government would be tamed to live within its means, like states and local governments must.
• He would revamp and scale back the “fourth branch of government” by applying “constitutional accountability to the bureaucracy” to ensure that “the administrative state is brought to heel.”

Among ways he’d begin to do that is by immediately requiring “every federal agency to reduce the number of employees in Washington,” where they live in their own world with little relevance to those they serve, he said, noting that five of the nation’s seven wealthiest counties per capita are suburbs in the District of Columbia.

“But fixing the bureaucracy is not enough,” DeSantis said, noting such policies and actions are certain to draw heat from Democrats and “legacy media: the Pretorian guard of the bureaucracy.” It will require a two-term presidency to accomplish this, he said. As the campaign unfolds, he will be rolling out policies “on how we are going to do it,” he added.

“You got to be right on policy. But being right on policy is not enough. You got to show leadership. Big things can be done. All is not lost,” DeSantis said. But first things first. “You can’t do any of this stuff unless you win,” DeSantis said. “There is no substitute in this business for victory.”