| DeSantis plans to announce presidential run |
| Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida intends to announce the start of his 2024 presidential campaign this evening in a live conversation on Twitter with Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, moderated by the Republican donor David Sacks. DeSantis will also appear on Fox News in an interview. |
| One challenge for DeSantis as he enters the race will be competing for attention with former president Donald Trump, who has long shown a knack for commandeering the limelight. Trump’s aides have signaled that he plans to return to Twitter sooner rather than later, after his account was reinstated by Musk late last year. |
| Musk said this week that he was not formally throwing his support behind DeSantis or any other Republican. The businessman, at times the world’s richest man, has said he voted for President Biden in the 2020 election, but has since been critical of him and his administration, which has a frosty relationship with his electric car company, Tesla. |
| Twitter: Under Musk, Twitter has cultivated a Republican audience. This month, Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News star, announced he would start a new show on Twitter. But in choosing Twitter Spaces, DeSantis is relying on a streaming tool with a history of bugs and failures. |
| In other U.S. political news: |
| Trump’s hush-money criminal trial in New York is scheduled to begin in March 2024. |
| Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces a fraught pathway to a deal on the debt limit. |
