Elon Musk recently declaring that we need to move on from President Donald Trump is the latest example of chatter I have noticed lately on the news and conservative blogs about why we need to do an about-face to Governor Ron DeSantis as our presidential nominee in 2024.

The question is whether this conversation is from the people or manufactured by Deep State operatives.

As of the writing of this piece, Trump has not officially declared whether he's even going to seek the nomination in 2024, but you wouldn't know that from all the hand-wringing.  So, for now this is just a hypothetical comparison.

First, I am a big Governor DeSantis fan.  He is showing what strong state leadership looks like and how it is possible to constitutionally resist a tyrannical federal government.  DeSantis has been a profile in courage, toughness, sensibility, and even love as he stands for the citizens of Florida.  He is the living embodiment of a patriotic executive.

Governor DeSantis has what it takes to be president and would likely be an effective leader of the free world...but not in 2024.  DeSantis needs to stay in Florida for now, build on the gains he has made for that state, and instill the habit in the minds of Floridians of what normal governance looks like.  This, so they don't screw up and elect another politician in the vein of Charlie Christ or Andrew Gillum (Florida really dodged a bullet with that clown).

DeSantis is not just governing as a conservative; he is leading as a competent, law-abiding, and measured executive, which is what a governor should be.  He is governing from the standpoint of the rule of law and not an agenda.  DeSantis is building that foundation in his first term, and he needs to stay to ensure that his example instructs citizens of other states in what qualities to look for in a governor.

DeSantis will be a perfect wingman during a second Trump term, because Trump will need strong governors to help turn America from the nightmare that has been the disastrous Joe Biden administration.  MAGA (Make America Great Again) is a movement that cannot rely solely on Trump.  In addition to the people, we will need MAGA senators, representatives, state attorneys general, secretaries of state, sheriffs, mayors, and governors.

If Trump had slunk away after the 2020 presidential election, I could see going for DeSantis.  But Trump did not, and as a result, he is even more powerful than before, as indicated by the strength and successes of his candidate endorsements and of his stinging criticisms.  Literally every day, Trump sounds off about election fraud, Biden's inflation, soaring fuel prices, the failure at the southern border, our shameful exit from Afghanistan, Critical Race Theory, men in women's sports, Biden's disastrous foreign policy, and Biden's mental decline. 

Yes, Trump keeps hammering the Corrupticrats (Pelosi, Schumer Schiff, AOC, etc.), but what's really registering are his rhetorical shots against the RINO cadre: Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger, and Liz Cheney, who detest the patriots in their own party and hate anything that puts America first.  America will not be great again with backstabbing RINOs undermining the effort at every turn.  Trump is opening the eyes of patriotic Republican voters to this reality.

Trump also continues to shine the spotlight on the corrupt corporate media and their dereliction of duty to objectively inform the public.  His tactics are working, judging by most Americans no longer trusting the mainstream news for information.

Despite these advances, it seems that some Republicans are fed up with Trump's political pugilism.

I'm just going by what I read in the comments sections of various conservative websites, but appearances indicate a lot of nervous Nellies who think life will be better for us Republicans if we thank Trump for his service but throw our support to less polarizing candidate.  Where have I heard this before?

Oh, yes — it's RINO speak.

Now, it's highly probable many of these comments are subversion efforts by the Deep State to divide conservatives.  This cannot be discounted.  But it's annoying to hear conservative friends mouthing these bromides.  Whenever I hear this sentiment of moving on, I must ask, "Do you think the media would treat Governor DeSantis at all differently once he became president?"

Uh...no.

Maybe the media pile-on wouldn't begin as quickly as with Trump, but it would happen.  And trust me: they have scandalous stories ready to go the moment DeSantis takes office.  My point is, no matter whom the Republicans elect, the candidate will be a "threat to democracy" (although we are a representative republic).  Remember when George W. Bush, now pals with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and a big-time RINO, was labeled as evil incarnate by the Dems and the media?  The media onslaught was so thorough that it got W's poll numbers into the gutter during his last term, paving the way for the election of Obama.

So if you think ditching Trump will stop the drama, you are deceiving yourself.  The most important advantage of Trump is that everything the swamp and the establishment have thrown at him has not stuck.  If they, the corporate media or his political enemies, had anything that could hurt him, it would be the lead story every day until the 2022 midterms and beyond.

From his policies and accomplishments, Trump is probably the most transformative America- first president since Ronald Reagan.  A robust economy?  Check.  Energy independence?  Check.  A conservative majority on the Supreme Court?  Check.  A stronger, revitalized military?  Check.  Secure southern border?  Check.  Getting NATO to pay their fair share?  Check.  Pulling us out of the Paris Climate Accord?  Check.  Keeping us away from never-ending wars?  Check.  Lowest unemployment numbers for blacks and Hispanics?  Check.  I could go on.

Now, is Trump infallible?  Hardly.  My biggest point of contention was his touting of the vaccines.  I get why he did so.  The vaccines were the beginning of the end of the lockdowns and began the return to some form of normalcy.  If not for Operation Warp Speed, we would have been locked down much, much longer.  So expediting the vaccines was a good thing.  However, a tyrannical health bureaucracy intimidating Americans into getting the vaccines under threat of job loss, or their kids not being able to attend regular school, was not a good thing.  Neither was the threat of vaccine passports, nor encouraging people to rat out those who gathered in large groups.

I had a problem with Trump urging everyone to get vaxxed amid this tyranny.  While I cringed, I still never thought about dumping him.  I figured, optics-wise, he couldn't condemn his rapid mobilization of the federal bureaucracy and Big Pharma without giving the leftists an advantage.  I understand that this is politics, after all.

But Trump is a smart man who knows his base.  He figured out that many Americans weren't sharing his praise for the vaccines.  As a result, Trump eventually came around and began mentioning in his rallies that people should have a choice of whether to take or refuse the vaccines.  I was glad for that. 

If you are one of those conservatives, and you are reading this column, I would ask you to please consider that if the media, the Dems, and RINOs (the Uniparty) hate Trump, then that is a good thing.  They always telegraph whom they fear.  And trust me: they're scared of this guy.

We should weather whatever they throw at this man.  Let's not repeat the RINO tactics of throwing someone overboard the moment the media decide they hate our candidate.  Remember: the Uniparty does not care about you or the country — only its own enrichment and power.  These people want Trump out because they fear him.  They fear him because he has the people behind him.  As Trump has said, the swamp really fears you and me as informed, patriotic Americans.

I don't think Governor DeSantis is falling for the recent adulation, nor should you.  I believe he sees this as a ploy to split and weaken MAGA.

One thing for certain is that Trump is the leader for these times.  His example has encouraged Americans to take a stand and assert their God-given power.  We understand that it is we, the people who will reclaim America.  Trump is a force only because of us.  Awakened patriots are a danger to the globalists and their sycophants on both sides of the aisle.

 To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, we cannot spare this man; he fights.

Dex Bahr is a freelance writer and author of the book No Christian Man Is an Island: Leading the Spiritual Quest in America's Culture Wars.  He is currently putting the finishing touches on his follow-up book, tentatively titled American Christian: A Treatise of Discernment.

Image via Picryl.