What Would a World Led by Ron DeSantis Look Like?

A DeSantis presidency would be marked by erratic, bumbling, incoherent and offensive foreign policy driven by vested interests over American values.

c/o Christina Animashaun/Vox

I knew there was a problem when I tried to find a handy compendium of Ron DeSantis’s policy positions on his campaign website, “DeSantis for President.” There is none. No icon labeled, “Issues,” which is customary on campaign sites. Nor anything listed under “Categories.” DeSantis’s p.r. resembles his campaign: shallow, ad hoc, rickety and not very informative. Having reported on campaigns over the years, I know a good candidate website when I see it. His spanking new 35-year old campaign manager has his work cut out for him as his boss’s quest to capture the White House falls to pieces like a Florida high school’s curriculum.

I was searching specifically for information on DeSantis’s foreign policy platform. I had to rely on press reports. I found no evidence that he’s made a speech dedicated to foreign policy, something serious presidential candidates do. Nor has my online search turned up any evidence of a foreign policy advisory team, another hallmark of a serious presidential candidate. He did go on a four-nation (Japan, South Korea, Israel, UK) tour last spring. UK business leaders described DeSantis as “low-wattage,” a politician whom “nobody in the room was left thinking, ‘this man’s going places.’”

From what I could gather, DeSantis’s weltanschauung centers on Israel, Israel and Israel — that is, full-blown, unconditional, unblinking support for whatever Israel wants: more military aid, support for new annexations and settlements, sidelining the Palestinians, moving the capital to Jerusalem, strong-arming U.S. companies who refuse to do business in the occupied territories — all befitting his promise to be the “most pro-Israel governor in America,” — a position that helps him with both Jewish and evangelical constituents in Florida. DeSantis made only three foreign trips as a three-term House member (including on the Foreign Affairs Committee) and one as governor — all to Israel.

Apart from Israel, DeSantis has made a mish-mash of often contradictory statements on foreign policy.

Following Putin’s seizure of Crimea in 2014, DeSantis slammed the Obama administration for not sending military support to Ukraine. Fast forward to 2023 and he told Tucker Carlson that he viewed the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a “territorial dispute” and criticized the Biden administration for its “blank check” policy toward Ukraine. The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board lambasted DeSantis’s comments as a “puzzling surrender to the Trumpian temptation of American retreat.”

DeSantis is a hardliner on China, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. And has said he “will authorize use of deadly force against drug smugglers cutting through the border wall. We have to take the fight to the cartels.” But don’t ask for any position papers, or further details from a DeSantis foreign policy advisor on these or other global issues.

He did two very short overseas stints as a Naval JAG officer, at Guantanamo Naval Base and in Iraq. He graduated with honors from Yale and Harvard. Clearly, he’s no dummy. DeSantis, however, displays little depth in foreign affairs, his service on the House Foreign Affairs Committee notwithstanding.

DeSantis is sometimes described as a “Jacksonian” — after populist President Andrew Jackson — who favors a strong military used sparingly but with overwhelming force when necessary, collateral damage be damned. In his book The Courage To Be Free, he rejects the “messianic impulse” which he says marked the foreign policy of President George W. Bush. Service members, he writes, “are weary of missions launched without a coherent strategy and are sick of seeing engagements that produce inconclusive results rather than clear-cut victory.”

DeSantis is critical of State Department diplomats, dismissing them as “Arabist in outlook” and “all in” with the Muslim Brotherhood. In true Trumpian fashion, he promised last week to go after the “deep state” and “start slitting throats on Day One.”

So, given all of this, what would foreign policy under a President Ron DeSantis look like?

It’s often said that DeSantis is a conscious Trump copycat without the melodrama and histrionics. Therefore, expect a DeSantis administration to be equally marked by erratic, bumbling, incoherent and offensive foreign policy driven by vested interests over American values. Consigning the government professionals to their respective cafeterias would remove expertise from policymaking, again, as marked the Trump administration. MAGA ideologues and newly minted amateur hour diplomats would be in charge. As under Trump, the State Department’s senior ranks and ambassadorships would be auctioned off or handed to donors and lapdog fanatics. Again, as with Trump, the dismissively anti-intellectual administration wouldn’t bother with such silly exercises as a written comprehensive National Security Strategy or policy papers. Foreign policy would be done ad hoc, by the seat of the pants from the White House and in response to interest group pressures.

DeSantis has amply demonstrated as Florida governor that process, inclusive decision-making and rule of law would have no place in his administration. Governance by fiat, ukaz, bullying, threats and summary firings would be the rule of the day. The overall tone of DeSantis’s leadership style is Mussoliniesque martinet.

Allies would be alternatingly ignored or insulted. Consulting with traditional friends in the E.U., NATO and other forums would simply not happen, thereby resulting in traditionally friendly nations finding other arrangements to address their security, trade and economic needs. The United States would wallow in solipsistic navel gazing, finally losing itself in self-defeating isolationism.

MAGA pressures would force Washington to cave to the Russians, to sell out the Ukrainians. And the U.S. would stand idly by as Putin went on to the next courses on his menu: Georgia, Moldova, the Baltic States. . .

Tensions with China would fast escalate to the point of military clashes on the high seas and in the air. Beijing might finally make a move to seize Taiwan. Draconian border and immigration measures would lead to the U.S. image in Latin America reaching an all-time low. All of sub-Saharan Africa would be written off and conceded to become a sphere of influence of the Russians. No worries. After all, they’re “shithole countries.”

The bottom line question is: How long would the American people tolerate their country spiraling downward? Would they finally react as enemies encroached and global chaos threatened their way of life and children’s future?

Fortunately, we may never know given Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign more and more looking like Russia’s ill-fated warship, Moskva.

Ah! But we’d still not be out of the woods. Inmate 301556, aka President Donald J. Trump, is ready, willing and able — and leaving Ron DeSantis in the dust in the polls.