The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump spent April 18, 2023 taking aim at Ron DeSantis over Florida’s long-running fight with Disney. In a Truth Social post, Trump said DeSantis was being “absolutely destroyed by Disney” and cast the governor’s latest move as a political stunt. The line fit Trump’s usual style: hit hard, make it personal, and turn a policy fight into a test of dominance. ([transcripts.cnn.com](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sitroom/date/2023-04-18/segment/01?utm_source=openai))

The Disney dispute did not begin that day. It had been building since 2022, after Disney publicly opposed Florida’s parental-rights law, and DeSantis responded by moving to strip the company’s special self-governing district of its old structure. By February 27, 2023, he had signed legislation taking control of the district and framing the move as punishment for Disney’s stance. The company would not file its federal lawsuit until April 26, 2023. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/36ec16b56ac6e72b9efcce26defdd0d8?utm_source=openai))

Trump’s attack mattered mostly as campaign behavior, not as a policy development. He was using a familiar line of pressure against a rival who was trying to look like the disciplined, less erratic version of the same political brand. The downside for Trump is obvious: even when he is trying to shrink a competitor, he can end up helping keep that competitor central to the story. On April 18, DeSantis was not disappearing from the primary conversation. Trump was making sure he stayed there. ([transcripts.cnn.com](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sitroom/date/2023-04-18/segment/01?utm_source=openai))

That is the core dynamic of the Trump-DeSantis rivalry in this stretch of 2023. Trump still had the louder voice and the bigger audience, but he also kept returning to the same feud, which gave DeSantis repeated exposure and made the Florida governor look like a real target rather than a sideshow. The exchange was less a turning point than a snapshot of Trump’s instinctive politics: attack first, amplify the feud, and trust the noise to do the work. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it just keeps the other guy in the picture. ([transcripts.cnn.com](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sitroom/date/2023-04-18/segment/01?utm_source=openai))