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(CNN) After a week of struggling with the nation’s political ambitions, Governor Ron DeSantis is heading overseas this week for a series of allied visits. This is the first opportunity for a Republican from Florida to take the international stage as a presidential candidate. .
According to his office, the official purpose behind DeSantis’ trip around the world is an “international trade mission.” DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis and two representatives of his administration will travel to Japan, South Korea, Israel and the UK to meet with officials and discuss potential business partnerships.
“This trade mission will give us an opportunity to strengthen our economic ties and continue to demonstrate Florida’s position as an economic leader,” the governor said in a news release Thursday.
While in Israel, DeSantis will also be a keynote speaker at events organized by The Jerusalem Post and The Jerusalem Tolerance Museum. The move came at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and its Middle Eastern allies over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform proposals.
This trip highlights DeSantis’ foreign policy track record as he nudges toward a White House bid. DeSantis raised public awareness as a pandemic contrarian and by leading the state through a series of cultural battles, but his views on world affairs were dictated by the governor’s series of contradictory statements about the war in Ukraine. It didn’t get much scrutiny until recently when I submitted my opinion.
DeSantis’ remarks that support for Ukraine is not a “vital” national interest have set off alarm bells among hawkish Republicans in Congress, the governor retracted in an interview with Piers Morgan, and Russian President Vladimir Putin A few days later, he dismissed the war as a battle over “borderlands,” further obscuring his position.
DeSantis is a former naval attorney stationed in both Guantanamo Bay and Iraq who served nearly six years as a member of the Washington House of Representatives, served on the House Foreign Relations Committee, and was a frequent critic of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. was. As governor, he has promoted hardline policies against the communist governments of Cuba and China, most recently banning TikTok on state government devices and pushing laws making it illegal for Chinese citizens to buy real estate in Florida. .
And despite planning to meet with allies to encourage business with states, DeSantis on Friday made fun of a UN commission resolution criticizing the anti-riot laws he championed as governor.
“I wear that criticism as a badge of honor,” he said at an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation outside Washington.
DeSantis’ overseas trip will be his first official trip off U.S. soil since visiting Israel with state-elected ministers early in his first term as Governor in 2019. As an elected official, DeSantis never visited a country other than Israel.
DeSantis’ predecessor, now Senator Rick Scott, undertook more than a dozen trade missions during his tenure as governor. But while DeSantis is primarily focused on his problems at home, he’s also dealing with the coronavirus outbreak that severely restricted his travel for most of his first term.
hometown challenge
DeSantis now prepares to travel to Europe and East Asia for the first time as governor, in the most difficult time yet of the unofficial unfolding of the expected presidential election and in his hometown where he has voiced his critics. is left as an issue. Question about his recent big trip.
Some major donors have publicly expressed concerns about DeSantis’ potential in the primary against Donald Trump, who continues to bait his former ally on social media. He sought support from within the House where he once served by exaggerating his return to the Capitol and deploying a series of legislative endorsements, including a minority from members of Florida. , 11 Florida Republicans support Trump over DeSantis, including seven last week.
DeSantis also faces scrutiny this month in its response to heavy rains described as a 1-in-1,000-year event that flooded Fort Lauderdale and surrounding areas. During a severe flood, DeSantis took a book tour to Ohio and spoke at a fundraiser for Republicans in New Hampshire. Little is known about storms.
“Fort Lauderdale is submerged and DeSantis is now campaigning in Ohio instead of caring for the suffering in his state,” says Donald Trump, son of former president・Junior tweeted earlier this month.
The storms also caused gasoline shortages across South Florida, and the state’s U.S. Senator, a Republican, criticized the response, though he didn’t call DeSantis directly. Senator Marco Rubio called the situation “crazy,” adding, “They have to solve this problem.”
“Families in Florida should not be uncertain about their next tank of gas. All available resources should be deployed to fix this.” Scott tweeted.
Asked about the comments from the Florida senator, DeSantis spokesman Brian Griffin told CNN: A state of emergency was declared the day after the flood occurred. “
On Saturday, DeSantis called on the Biden administration to declare a major disaster.
Meanwhile, in his state capital, Tallahassee, with the Florida legislature nearing the end of its 60-day session, Republican lawmakers are tasked with helping DeSantis achieve a policy victory before he launches his presidential campaign. owes He has already signed several of these bills, including a ban on abortion, a measure to allow Florida residents to carry concealed guns in public, and an overhaul of the state’s tort laws.
But with most of DeSantis on the move, some of his priorities seem to have stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress. A bill that would make it easier for the press to sue for defamation has not moved for weeks. The state legislator also opposes a provision in his DeSantis immigration package that would eliminate in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.
Rep. Greg Steube, a former Florida senator who endorsed Trump last week, said: defendant state legislator on Friday in “Carriage Water for the Unannounced Presidential Campaign.”
“Your voters voted you for those offices not to yield to the governor’s presidential ambitions, but to represent them!” murmured“Be strong and brave. The people of Florida will thank you.”
DeSantis, who seems unfazed by the chatter, rattled off his conservative victory as governor Friday before a friendly audience at a Heritage Foundation event.
DeSantis also gave a brief look at the 2024 elections, explaining what will be at stake in the upcoming presidential election, noting that the country has “determination and discipline to eradicate politicization and corruption across the old executive branch.” A chief executive officer with a In the distracted and often chaotic era of President Trump.
“We need to dismiss the pessimism whispered about our country’s future,” DeSantis said. “After all, decline is a choice, success is attainable, and freedom is worth fighting for.”
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