Asia, Israel and the United Kingdom. DeSantis’ near-candidate tour

The Florida governor is committed to promoting his international experience and vulnerability. He is the only competitor Trump seems to fear and in fact…

Ron DeSantisGovernor of Florida, is currently on a long international tour: welcomed by the Prime Ministers of Japan (Fumio Kishida), South Korea (Han Duck Soo) and Israel (Benjamin Netanyahu), in the UK at the weekend. On the agenda are meetings with some government ministers, incl James Cleverly Foreign affairs, but not the CEO: There are logistical problems, given that Rishi Sunak He is in Scotland on party duties, but there is also a matter of protocol. Someone is trying to get a meeting with DeSantis, like Nigel Faragea symbol of Brexit and now leader of a new party, Reform UK.

The governor has not announced his candidacy for the Republican primary, but the conservative party seems to confirm its interest in doing so soon, given that it seems designed to strengthen the international experience. “Ironically, people like him, who argue that America should focus more on itself, find it necessary to go out and present themselves to the world in a show of dogs and ponies,” he said. Elizabeth Browa senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Al guardian. But these tours are a rite of passage for presidential candidates. in 2008 Barack Obama, who also lacks foreign policy experience, has visited Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Obama met in the last three stages Angela MerkelAnd Nicolas Sarkozy And Gordon Brown. But, unlike DeSantis, he had already secured the nomination by then.

In a speech Thursday at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, DeSantis said he used water from the Sea of ​​Galilee to baptize his children. He spoke of the “Judeo-Christian values” that bind the two countries. The only reference to the “Palestinian” world was in a joke about terrorism. On the Biden administration’s criticism of the justice reform that Prime Minister Netanyahu is promoting, he said that “it should not be our duty to meddle in these important issues.”

DeSantis is the only challenger Donald Trump, who has a personal relationship with some world leaders, seems to be afraid. This is evidenced by what happened with regard to visiting Israel, now a mandatory step for all US presidential candidates and known as “New Iowa” for Republican candidates (Jewish and evangelical votes included). ). DeSantis had dinner with some of Trump’s top donors, she revealed Axios (second PoliticianWithout having officially launched his candidacy yet, he would have already raised twice as much campaign funding as Trump, who launched it in November.) The governor called the Trump administration’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem a success, saying he worked to “convince” the former president to do so (but never mentioned him by name). Trump’s response was immediate, via his spokesperson Steve Cheung She explained, “DeSantis is trying to convince others that he has something to do with it. It is sad that he belittled himself in such a small way that he had to lie outright about the facts to bolster his meager resume.”