Kind of like spending $25MM branding DeSantis as establishment.
Where has the majority of RDS campaign money come from? Ask Lee Zeldin why RDS ditched Zeldin's campaign event, then lied to the media about it.
Ask RDS about his Palm Beach fund raising events he hosted for high end establishment donors. You may want to also ask RDS about why so many of his advisors have republican establishment ties.
RDS will use whatever he needs to advance RDS. I get that, he's a politician. RDS won the governor office very narrowly the first time, and the only reason he pulled out a win was on the endorsement of DJT. So RDS was MAGA, and even used it in his ads to sway Trump supporters to vote for him. On his second governor election he once again used Trump's endorsement and also played up to get Trump supporters to support him, and he won easily.
Then, RDS listened as the establishment republicans were desperately looking for someone to keep DJT from running. RDS surrounded himself with establishment advisors, and they in turn began fund raising with the establishment donors. The establishment thought RDS's success on re-election to governor would enable him to keep and hold the Trump supporters as he would be seen as the successor to the MAGA agenda. The establishment severely miscalculated and immediately began loosing support.
Another huge problem with RDS is his inability to run a national campaign. Again, using establishment campaigning techniques the messaging doesn't resonate with the core voters. As of right now RDS will not even be able to win his own state in the primaries. That's devastating for a campaign.
In retrospect, had RDS got behind DJT he would have probably been in line to a VP pick, which would have carried him into 2028 easily and a re-election in 2032. Even if not picked for the VP in 2024, finishing his term as Governor and perhaps a run for the senate would have been easy and better positioned himself for later.
Any way you look at it, RDS made a major mistake aligning himself with the republican establishment.