THE BANALITY OF MAGA (profanity alert):

The first-term Florida governor strutted onstage in a boxy suit and red tie, flinging white "Ron DeSantis" baseball caps into the sea of unmasked faces. The sound system blasted "Sweet Florida," a country tribute anthem the Lynyrd Skynyrd-adjacent band Van Zant wrote for him. The music wrapped and the crowd quieted. DeSantis gripped the lectern. He offered cursory praise for Mastriano and then uncorked a grievance-fueled stump speech that sounded like it had been written by AI plugged into Fox News. In DeSantis's telling, the honest people of Florida were besieged by a vast array of liberal scourges: big tech, IRS agents, George Soros, the Biden administration, the corporate media, illegal immigrants, Anthony Fauci, police defunders, Disney, China, communism, cancel culture, critical race theory, and woke gender ideology. Only Ron DeSantis was brave enough to confront these malign forces. [...]

DeSantis's offices have earned a reputation as very unhappy places to work. "When you work for Ron, he makes you feel like you're just lucky to be there," a former gubernatorial aide said. "I once had to drive him to the airport. We got stuck in traffic for an hour, and he didn't say a word," a former congressional staffer told me. "I describe him as having the personality of a piece of paper." Last year, Politico reported ex-DeSantis staffers had formed a "support group" to commiserate over their bruising experiences. "He's a terrible bully," a past adviser said.

The Herculean job of smoothing DeSantis's rough edges and repairing relationships falls to one person: his wife, Casey. A former local newscaster, Casey is by far DeSantis's closest confidant and adviser, multiple sources said. "The only person he listens to is Casey," a former congressional staffer said. DeSantis consults her on everything from hiring decisions and media appearances to policy positions and wardrobe choices. She's been known to write thank-you cards and make phone calls on his behalf. "She is his emotional tuning fork," a former congressional staffer said. Several sources compared her influence to that of the most famous Republican political spouse in recent memory: Nancy Reagan. But no one would mistake Ron DeSantis for Ronald Reagan, the former actor with an innate sense of his audience. Which means DeSantis's political future hinges on the following question: Can he lead the Trump cult of personality with no personality?

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