That whole unity thing lasted about five minutes for a few conservative outlets who just can’t help but try to farm engagement.
The setup is a silly piece of legislation proposed in Florida that would force the state’s taxpayers to pay up to $5,000,000 toward Donald Trump’s legal fees.
Some Florida Republicans want taxpayers to pay Trump's legal bills https://t.co/07wG6Nngm2
— POLITICO (@politico) January 22, 2024
A push by some Florida Republicans to use taxpayer money to help pay for former President Donald Trump’s multiple legal battles quickly fell apart after Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened to veto the legislation.
State Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami Republican who endorsed Trump’s reelection, has filed a bill for this year’s legislative session that could allow the state to hand out up to $5 million to the embattled Republican front-runner for president. The legislation has already won the endorsement from Jimmy Patronis, the state’s Republican chief financial officer, who for months has been publicly calling for taxpayers to pay to defend Trump from criminal charges.
On its face, this is a ridiculous idea, and it should be noted that Donald Trump has not asked for this. That will be important to remember when we get to Ron DeSantis’ reaction. It doesn’t matter what one thinks of the indictments against Trump, it is not the responsibility of Florida taxpayers to shell out millions of dollars to pay his legal fees.
There are already vast private fundraising operations handling that and, last I heard, the former president is a billionaire who could throw in some of his own money in a pinch. Florida taxpayers should not be shoved to the front of the line in providing funding. Besides, there is already a system set up to pay for a defendant’s legal fees in this country if they truly need it.
Naturally, DeSantis did the right thing and said he’d veto the legislation.
But not the Florida Republican who wields the veto pen… https://t.co/kkc2yyqVK0
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 23, 2024
Is that controversial? I guess so because quite a few people on the right got triggered by his post, including some conservative media outlets that claimed it was a “swipe” at Trump himself.
The context for this is that DeSantis said he would veto a bill that would allocate FL taxpayer funds to pay Donald Trump’s legal fees. Seriously. https://t.co/9NoIjbb0JR
— Tony (@realtonysm1th) January 23, 2024
DeSantis takes swipe at President Trump on X one day after endorsing himhttps://t.co/DR9BhkSlKR
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 23, 2024
The Blaze, another conservative news site, also deleted a post in which they claimed DeSantis’ post was a “dig” at Trump. Was it, though? Because I’m pretty sure the governor would have pledged to veto the bill no matter who it was targeted at helping. Further, as I mentioned above, Trump did not ask for Florida to pay his legal bills. Rather, this is the work of a few state-level politicians who got too stimulated by their support for the former president. DeSantis was taking a swipe at them, not Trump.
Last I checked, conservatives are supposed to be against socialism. Forcing a state to pay someone’s excessively high legal bills for cases not even being held in that state is a monumentally stupid and bad idea. Some in the conservative press and their attached “influencers” would do well to take a step back, stop trying to farm clicks so much, and think past the next five minutes.
