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- Governor Ron DeSantis finished off a four-stop international tour in London on Friday.
- Attendees were not impressed by the speech, Politico reported.
- According to one person, there was no "stardust" when the Florida governor spoke.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met with prominent business leaders in London as a part of a four-stop international tour but leaders told Politico that his speech was less than exciting.
Multiple figures at the Friday event described the DeSantis as "low-wattage" and "horrendous."
One business person, who remained unnamed, told Politico that DeSantis's message wasn't "presidential" and said he stared at his feet in the face of UK industry titans.
Another said "nobody in the room was left thinking, 'this man's going places.'"
"There wasn't any stardust," the second anonymous attendee told Politico.
DeSantis is expected to announce his 2024 campaign for president next month, once a bill that would allow him to run while still holding office makes its way to his desk.
The observation that the high-profile Florida politician may not be charismatic, especially compared to other GOP politicians, is something that former President Donald Trump pointed out as early as January of last year, Axios reported.
Trump, who announced his third presidential campaign in November of last year, trashed DeSantis in private as someone with a "dull personality," according to sources close to the former president who spoke to Axios.
It seems Trump is sticking with that point, according to a report from Politico. Sources told the outlet in March that Trump's election team will be focusing on using DeSantis' "personality factor" in a political brawl between the two.
It's not just Trump either: GOP strategists have spoken to outlets decrying DeSantis' supposedly unlikable personality. Multiple people who spoke to Vanity Fair in September told the outlet his temperament would hinder his political chances on a national stage.
"The biggest complaint you hear about DeSantis is that he never says thank you," a veteran GOP strategist told Vanity Fair. "People host events where donors give him enormous sums of money, and he never says thank you."
DeSantis's polling numbers against Trump may be a reflection of his charm as well. Recent polling from Fox News shows Trump as a favored candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, at 51% among GOP primary voters, compared to DeSantis's 30%.
When asked about his drop in the polls by The Wall Street Journal, DeSantis blamed it on the fact that he isn't a presidential candidate yet.
"I'm not a candidate, so we'll see if and when that changes," DeSantis said on Monday.
A representative for DeSantis did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/nRASW37
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