Trump frustrated with a powerful conservative group after its outreach to Ron DeSantis

[Timber Rattler]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-frustrated-conservative-group-turning-point-usa-rcna69564

Few Republican groups have had as meteoric a rise as Turning Point USA.

Started in 2012 to energize young conservatives, the group has quickly grown to become a sort of quasi-party apparatus in its own right through organizing, holding rallies with prominent conservatives and, perhaps most importantly, tying itself closely to former President Donald Trump and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

But, like for many groups on the right, the past few months have been rough following the GOP’s underwhelming midterm performance. Some Republicans now question whether the group and its founder, Charlie Kirk, were overhyped, particularly after top-of-the-ticket losses for candidates it went all in for in Arizona, the state where it bases its operations and which it seeks to use as a testing ground.

A bigger problem for Kirk and Turning Point, however, is that they may be losing the confidence of their most important supporter: Trump.

With the 2024 primary campaign heating up, multiple people close to Trump told NBC News that he and some around him are frustrated by Kirk’s overtures to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A close Trump adviser who spoke with the former president just last week about the matter said that Trump has “been watching” Kirk’s relationship with DeSantis since Turning Point hosted rallies across the country last summer for high-profile GOP candidates with the Florida governor as the headliner.

More recently, Trump noticed Kirk starting to ally himself with DeSantis in his effort to shake up the Republican National Committee, according to the adviser, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Kirk was vocal in wanting to oust the incumbent chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, who was originally handpicked by Trump for the job.

DeSantis, on the other hand, publicly praised her challenger Harmeet Dhillon — who was boosted heavily by Kirk — in comments that made waves at the RNC’s winter meeting last month. And he made those remarks in an interview with Kirk.

“Trump feels like he has made Charlie and Charlie’s ungrateful and [Trump’s] not been happy for a while,” the adviser said. “He’s like, ‘You call him and you tell him he’d be nothing without my son.’”

“I see that [Kirk’s] trying to cover all his bases,” the adviser continued. “Trying to triangulate between Trump and DeSantis. And Ron may not care, but Trump notices.”

EXCERPT

That's how it rolls with Trump...kiss his ring or get roasted.

[Hoodat]

Perhaps if Trump had governed as a Conservative, he would get more Conservative support.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

The Dhillon/McDaniel split is a good litmus test.  Trump is conservative on some issues, but there are a ton of issues about which Trump doesn't care at all, and he ends up siding with whomever brown-noses him the most.

He was perfectly fine being aligned with the Club for Growth and Turning Point when they supported him.  It was only after they showed signs of perhaps preferring someone other than him that they suddenly became globalist traitors.