- The Florida governor was the headliner at the first night of Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida.
- Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are its two main speakers, amid growing buzz that the two may face-off in a heated 2024 Republican primary
- DeSantis' speech hovered between touting his accomplishments in Florida and applying that message to national politics as a whole
- He also took shots at California's Democrat Govenor Gavin Newsom, who's widely seen as another potential presidential contender if Biden does not run
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wished the United States a "speedy recovery from Joe Biden' in the wake of the president's COVID-19 diagnosis and touted his accomplishments in the GOP's culture war in a remarkably campaign-like Friday night speech.
'I want to, on behalf of the State of Florida, wish President Biden a speedy recovery from COVID. And I also want to wish the United States of America a speedy recovery from Joe Biden,' the governor said before an audience of young Republican voters in Tampa, Florida.
2024 rumors with his appearance at the Student Action Summit held by right-wing group Turning Point USA—where former President Donald Trump is slated to speak just a day later.
The governor devoted a significant portion of his address to Republicans' bid to win Congress in November's midterm elections while also hammering Biden for inflation and the border crisis - a decidedly national politics-focused message for an official who has shrugged off White House ambitions but not explicitly ruled them out.
'If we get that red wave in the House and in the Senate, and Republicans have majorities, here's what I think we as voters want to see-we want to see you do something with those majorities,' DeSantis said.
"We want to see you hold [Biden] and his ilk accountable for what they're doing at the southern border.'
He further fueled 2024 buzz by attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is widely seen as a potential Democratic contender should Biden not run again.
"We believe every parent in the state of Florida has a right to send their little kid to elementary school without having radical gender ideology injected into the curriculum." It is totally inappropriate to take some six-year-old kid and to say, "You may have been born a boy, but maybe you're really a girl." That is wrong and may fly in California, but it does not fly here in the state of Florida', DeSantis said.
It's notable that he did not mention Trump's name once.
At one point, when comparing Biden to past leaders, DeSantis held up the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan—but not the ex-leader with whose help he clinched the Florida governorship in 2018.
However, it's clear that he took some cues from the former president. DeSantis opened his appearance by tossing baseball caps to the crowd, which has become a hallmark of Trump's recent rallies.