Top DeSantis donor complains candidate 'is the problem' as campaign continues to collapse

Republican Party donors who placed their bets on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to supplant Donald Trump as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee are expressing buyer's remorse as his campaign continues a downward spiral the more he hits the road to meet with voters.

With a new poll showing the Florida conservative falling even farther behind the twice-indicted former president, questions are being raised among some of his financial backers who wonder if the blame should be placed on his campaign strategists or if DeSantis is just an irretrievably bad candidate who can't stand up to scrutiny outside of his state.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, one key donor admits DeSantis himself may be the problem.

According to Rolling Stone's Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng, "Various big DeSantis donors have been furious that the campaign seemed to take its cues from internet culture wars over niche issues. But despite a large-scale shedding of staff, some of the most online staffers remain on board," adding, "The 'out-with-the-old, back-in-with-old' nature of the reboot has some donors asking if the problem isn’t the campaign, but the candidate."

Getting right to the point, one unnamed DeSantis donor fumed, "A top-to-bottom makeover and real accountability may be the only thing that saves Ron DeSantis [in the primary], but even then you still have the governor at the top."

"And it is getting harder and harder by the day to see not just his people as the problem, but him as the problem," they added.

The report added, "Numerous Republicans hoping to help put DeSantis in the White House — including officials at Never Back Down, other GOP moneymen, and veteran Republican operatives — have privately vented their rage at the current direction of the campaign, according to five sources familiar with the matter. Several donors and operatives have taken their concerns directly to the governor or his senior aides in recent weeks."

Longtime GOP strategist Ed Rollins claimed it's not the campaign that is the problem, it's what they are selling.

“I don’t think it’s the campaign’s fault at all; it’s him,” he told Rolling Stone. “I think he’s been a very flawed candidate. I know some of the people around him, and some of them are good, talented people. But every time he opens his mouth, he has a tendency to — shall we say — think out-loud, and he clearly doesn’t understand the game. … When you get into these culture wars the way that he has, the vast majority of people don’t understand what they are."

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