Floridian Governor and Republican Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis said drug smugglers who try to bring lethal narcotics to the US will face deadly force. He told Martha MacCallum on Fox News that Mexican drug cartels control the southern US border. The Governor promised to finish the wall started by Donald Trump, adding that if drug cartels break through that border, they will end up “stone cold dead.”
DeSantis is taking a similar tough line to Donald Trump, who has said in the past that smugglers and traffickers should face the death penalty. The former President repeated his policy proposal when he formally announced his 2024 candidacy last year and has consistently argued that dealers and traffickers should be more stringently punished. Trump compares drug dealers to murderers and said people can be executed for killing one person, whereas drug dealers kill hundreds and yet do not face the severest punishment.
“If we don’t get tough on drug dealers, we’re wasting our time, just remember that, we’re wasting our time, and that toughness includes the death penalty,” Trump said in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 2018.
While the two candidates have much in common, DeSantis’ latest advert attacks Mr. Trump for siding with the LGBTQ+ community in the United States. The video published on the DeSantis war room on Twitter shows Trump promising to protect LGBTQ individuals in America. The Trump speech was filmed soon after Muslim terrorists murdered party-goers at a gay bar in Orlando.
DeSantis also regularly attacks Trump’s record in office and says he will do what the former President only promised to do.
Despite his legal battles and numerous attacks, President Trump remains the Republican frontrunner and is far ahead of DeSantis. The latest polling data from Real Clear Politics puts Trump on 52.4%, with DeSantis trailing on 21.5%. All other candidates are polling below 10%. The highest is Mike Pence at 5.7%, with Nikki Haley in fourth place on 3.6%.
