'Field of nightmares': Insiders say DeSantis campaign is a dead man walking

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis efforts building a $130 million springboard designed to catapult him into the White House resulted only in a political bellyflop that will likely see him sink, Iowa Caucus insiders say in a new report.

"Iowa instead became a field of nightmares for DeSantis," writes The Messenger's Marc Caputo. "The more he built his campaign there, the more voters didn’t come."

Caputo's post mortem details a DeSantis plan to make a major splash in the first Republican party contest of the 2024 election year that ultimately failed to harpoon the Moby Dick in the race.

“If you want to be The Man, you’ve got to beat The Man,” the former president's campaign manager Chris La Civita told the Messenger. "Ron DeSantis is not The Man. Donald Trump is The Man.”

DeSantis hoped that big campaign cash via super PAC Never Back Down might buy him some The Man status. But cash couldn't compete with the four criminal court cases Trump was able to turbo-charge into a brand new way to campaign.

“We had to be perfect and lucky," one DeSantis adviser told Caputo. "We were neither.”

Caputo's lengthy breakdown of DeSantis' breakdown includes porn star slip-ups, ethics complaints, a DeSantis Haters Club and the moment when the Florida governor fled Trump troll Laura Loomer.

You can read all the gory details here.