Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise Between Trump and a Former Acolyte. A spat over Covid

[empedocles]

. . . that it was Mr. DeSantis — a once-loyal member of the Trump court — wielding the knife made the tension about much more.

At its core, the dispute amounts to a stand-in for the broader challenge confronting Republicans at the outset of midterm elections. They are led by a defeated former president who demands total fealty, brooks no criticism and is determined to sniff out, and then snuff out, any threat to his control of the party.

That includes the 43-year-old DeSantis, who has told friends he believes Mr. Trump’s expectation that he bend the knee is asking too much. That refusal has set up a generational clash and a test of loyalty in the de facto capital of today’s G.O.P., one watched by Republicans elsewhere who’ve ridden to power on Mr. Trump’s coattails.sed friction between the former president and a rising G.O.P. governor unwilling to curb his ambitions . . . '

' . . .

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/us/trump-desantis.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces_filter_new_arm_10_1&alpha=0.05&block=trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=427994346&impression_id=62e2cf2e-77b5-11ec-b297-b9540eaf1fd1&index=5&pgtype=Article&pool=pool%2F91fcf81c-4fb0-49ff-bd57-a24647c85ea1®ion=footer&req_id=979953236&surface=eos-most-popular-story&variant=1_bandit-all-surfaces_filter_new_arm_10_1

[Ford_Prefect]

1. Trump owns the party until he's arrested and jailed. DeSantis knows this but Donald doesn't.

The push and shove of pretenders to the GOP throne, and presumably the White House, is erasing any possibility of "traditional" Republicans having any effect on the shape and texture of the party. The fallout is that the culture war leading to COVID spread and other damage to the nation is unending.