Ron DeSantis

Republicans are heading for disaster with former President Donald Trump cruising to a likely nomination for 2024 — but are blindly oblivious to this fact because they don't trust any piece of outside information that would alert them to this, wrote conservative columnist Matt Lewis for The Daily Beast on Monday.

Lewis' warning to the Republican Party comes amid other soundoffs from experts that the GOP rank and file doesn't know or care it's heading for a potential crash.

Even after four criminal indictments, two pending civil trials, and a civil trial that found him liable for sexual abuse, the majority of likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa, the first nominating contest of the GOP's 2024 presidential race, say they do not believe Donald Trump has committed series crimes.

Trump has been indicted by a Miami federal grand jury on Espionage Act charges claiming he mishandled classified documents. He has been indicted by a Washington, D.C. federal grand jury on charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost. He has been indicted by a Georgia grand jury on charges – including racketeering – related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost. He has been indicted by a New York grand jury on charges of falsification of business records related to his alleged hush money payoff of a porn star, which prosecutors say was done to protect his 2016 election bid.

Many critics of former President Donald Trump have been applauding ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's vehement attacks on his 2024 GOP presidential rival — complaining that other candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, have been offering only tepid criticism. A leaked DeSantis debate strategy memo, in fact, even urges the Florida governor to "defend Trump," who is facing four criminal indictments yet remains the Republican presidential primary frontrunner.

Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), another 2024 GOP presidential hopeful, is slamming fellow candidates for not criticizing Trump more aggressively.

Ron DeSantis' campaign brought in half a million dollars in donations from Tallahassee in June – including a lot of cash from questionable sources, the Tampa Bay Times reported Monday.

Donors included lobbyists and staffers employed in his own office, business owners who hold government contracts worth millions and at least six state agency leaders who owe their positions to the Florida governor, the newspaper reported.

Unhappy at the prospect that Donald Trump is about to walk away with the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominations that could doom the GOP's chances of retaking the White House, top conservative donors are making "secret overtures" to Republicans who have not joined the primary race in the hopes of dumping the former president.

According to a report from Axios, big money donors are sitting on their wallets while the search for a Trump alternative proceeds with Governors Brian Kemp (GA) and Glenn Youngkin (VA) high on the list.

As Axios is reporting, the fact that, new alternatives are being sought is bad news for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) who was once believed to be the top contender only to see his star fall once he hit the campaign trail.

According to the report, finding someone else to take on Trump -- who is being swamped with criminal indictment -- is a '"long-shot" but not unattainable if the money to back a candidacy is there.

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"Youngkin, if he announces, wants to wait until after what he hopes will be big GOP wins in November's legislative races in Virginia," Axios is reporting, adding, "Billionaire Ronald Lauder is among the GOP donors who are considering backing Youngkin if the governor gets into the race, a source who has spoken with Lauder told Axios. A spokesperson for Lauder declined to comment."

Billionaire Thomas Peterffy is also pushing for Youngkin after being in the DeSantis camp previously.

Noting that Kemp is unlikely to make the leap, the report adds that he is being courted just the same.

Authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat warned that the Republican Party is now the party of tyranny.

Speaking to MSNBC on Sunday for a special ahead of the first presidential debate Ben-Ghiat warned that the GOP has entered a kind of "spiral of radicalization."

A spreadsheet obtained by the Washington Post demonstrated how Gov. Ron DeSantis and his inner circle pressed lobbyists to sell access to the Florida Republican by setting up a bidding war among wealthy donors for access to "leisure activities" with the potential GOP candidate for president.

According to the report, the document was created with the assistance of top DeSantis aide Heather Barker and was aimed at "the state’s top 40 lobbyists and about 100 of their 'Suggested Clients to target'"

As the Post's Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf wrote, "The Florida governor’s fundraisers hoped that nine lobbyists would raise at least $1 million each for DeSantis’s political action committee," adding, "To help them haul in large sums of money, the document suggested that lobbyists be allowed to offer their clients certain perks, such as meals and rounds of golf with DeSantis, who loves the sport. DeSantis’s fundraisers envisioned that some golf outings with the governor would net contributions of $75,000 or more, according to other emails among DeSantis’s political advisers."

In emails obtained by the Post, Barker encouraged the lobbyists by writing, "I could sell golf for $50k this morning.”

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In addition to golf outings, the documents listed other offers that could be promised to rake in donations including, "lunch, meetings, dinner, tours, events, etc."

According to the report, "Each have a threshold (ex. Golf $25k per person, which is a deal), reads the document, whose authenticity was confirmed by multiple people with knowledge of it."