“Gone” DeSantis?Florida governor is losing weight by visiting early primary states to explore White House operations
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has slimmed down and looked slimmer in Iowa this week than when he took office in January
- On Thursday, Puck News speculated he might be taking Ozempic, while a Florida political insider said he was just cutting back on carbs and desserts
- There is a political tradition of presidential candidates losing weight before announcing their candidacy
Just call him “gone” DeSantis.
Florida's governor was spotted in Iowa last week looking slimmer than in recent years, even since taking office in January.
DeSantis is doing everything he can to launch a bid for the White House later this year.
He just released a book, The Courage to Be Free, that took him to the early primary states.
Potential presidential candidates also tend to lose weight.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been cutting a slim figure lately.DeSantis on the left in December 2019, compared to last week's appearance at Iowa State
DeSantis watchers even said they could tell DeSantis was weighing a difference from his January inauguration (pictured) and his current book tour
Florida's governor in June 2019 (left), then last week in Davenport, Iowa
For example, after former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo became visibly thinner after leaving office, it sparked speculation that he would run in the 2024 Republican primary.
DeSantis' diet works so quickly that Puck News speculated Thursday that he may be taking Ozempic, a diabetes-turned-diet drug that celebrities are turning to to lose weight quickly.
“He was a shell of his former self,” a Tallahassee insider told Parker.
Peter Schorsch, publisher of Florida Politics, writes twitter on thursday DeSantis didn't pick Ozempic, “even though Tally and the rest of Miami did.”
“The word on the street is that Ronnie D. is giving up carbs — no bread, no dessert!” Schorsch wrote.
That means Donald Trump could lose one of his lines of attack during the campaign.
The former President called DeSantis ‘fat' and ‘whiny' and took credit for him being elected governor, New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman wrote in her book Confidence Man.
That could come as a surprise to DeSantis after The Daily Beast reported on Thursday that the governor ate chocolate pudding with three fingers on a March 2019 flight from Tallahassee to Washington, D.C. Good political decision to prevent further ridicule.
DeSantis made his Iowa debut last Friday, and longtime observers noticed he looked slimmer than ever
“He would sit in meetings and eat in front of people,” a former DeSantis employee also told The Beast. Added, “Always like a starving animal that never eats…shit everywhere.”
Parker also reported that staffers would lure DeSantis to meetings with cupcakes.
Parker said he's a big fan of fried chicken at Zaxby's, a popular Southern fast-food chain.
After hearing former President Donald Trump — who recently turned DeSantis into his favorite political piñata — was spouting the idea of nicknamed him “Meatball Ron,” De Santis may have also been inspired to lose weight.
It is Trump's tradition to nickname all his political opponents.
On Monday, while en route to Davenport, Iowa, Trump explained to reporters why he had decided to stick with Ron “DeSanctimonious.”
“I don't use that name. It's used by other people. I don't like the name, I think it's too vulgar,” Trump said, according to The Daily Telegraph. “I'm not a very rude person.”
