Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was among the many to comment and joke about the challengers to Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s candidate for the 2024 presidential race.
In his show on Tuesday, he cracked about Trump’s possible nicknames for Nikki Haley and seemed to be absolutely baffled about why Trump would call Ron DeSantis “Meatball Ron.”
Nikki Haley is the first serious candidate to run against her former boss and has many credits to her name as a two-term governor of South Carolina, the first female in that position, and as a UN ambassador. She has been calling for changes in the party but polls so far have not shown a strong response.
Kimmel joked that Haley’s wanting to go in a “new direction” is like asking moths not to go towards the light. He also commented that we would be seeing “snakes screwing each other.”
The outcome of the 2024 presidential nomination looks likely to be a battle between Trump, who deals in grievances, insults and smears, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has been avoiding a seemingly inevitable clash. DeSantis commented that he delivers results for the people and fights Biden rather than smearing fellow Republicans. The question is how long he can avoid responding to Trump’s ugly attacks when they warrant a strong counterattack.
Trump has called DeSantis “Ron DeSanctimonious” and gone so far as to insinuate DeSantis displayed inappropriate behavior with girls when he was a high school teacher. This is just a small sample of Trump’s all-out assault on DeSantis and it poses the question of what will follow in the next seventeen months.
DeSantis has been presenting himself as a better candidate for the many more conservative Republicans who are tired of Trump’s criminal investigations and frantic efforts to hold on to power at all costs. He is well known and popular and is so far the strongest challenger to Trump.
The dilemma appears to be how to respond to Trump’s stepped up attacks and goading with the right balance of strength and power the assault deserves but without compromising his image of being smarter, more disciplined and policy-focused. Jimmy Kimmel predicts that Trump will “eat that meatball like a snack.” We will see how the opponents in this clash will engage in the months to come.
