After lying relatively low for years, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is going out with a bang while helping to boost President Trump’s domestic agenda.
DeSantis, whose term ends in January 2027, became a conservative household name during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to his spats with public health officials, his stance on the vaccine, and his more laissez-faire style of governing, as other blue states were locking down and following the gospel of Dr. Anthony Fauci. (RELATED: Democrats Are So Mad About Ron DeSantis‘ Redistricting Play, They’re Blowing Bullhorns Over It)
However, DeSantis’s star burned out fast after a failed presidential bid in 2024. The campaign was almost doomed from the start. He also made many political enemies within Trump’s orbit.
For the past 16 months, though, DeSantis has surged back into the fray, proving himself a loyal ally of Trump’s agenda.
US President President Donald Trump (2L), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (L), and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (R) tour a migrant detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida on July 1, 2025. President Trump is visiting a migrant detention center in a reptile-infested Florida swamp dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Trump will attend the opening of the 5,000-bed facility — located at an abandoned airfield in the Everglades wetlands — part of his expansion of deportations of undocumented migrants, his spokeswoman said. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
DeSantis worked closely with ICE, launching Operation Tidal Wave, which resulted in the arrests of over 10,000 illegal immigrants. In July 2025, he authorized the construction of “Alligator Alcatraz,” a massive migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades. He doubled down on his efforts weeks later, announcing plans for a second detention center, dubbed “Deportation Depot.”
In addition to immigration, DeSantis launched his own statewide version of the Department of Government Efficiency, and has helped the Trump White House reform Name Image and Likeness (NIL) rules on how universities pay student athletes. After Trump signed an executive order seeking to establish more federal oversight of NIL, DeSantis offered his praise.
“This is a great first step toward fixing and preserving college sports,” the governor said in early April. “As a member of the President’s Saving College Sports Initiative, I am excited to see headway made to fix important issues in the system. Congress must now act to codify these solutions into law.”
DeSantis also oversaw the state of Florida’s effort to help build Trump’s presidential library, giving the foundation responsible for planning the library a parcel of waterfront Miami property.
“Having the Trump Presidential Library in Miami will be good for Florida, for the city, and for Miami Dade College,” he said in September 2025. “No state has supported the President’s agenda more than the Free State of Florida, and I was proud to spearhead the successful effort to house this historic presidential library right here in his home state.”
ESTERO, FL – OCTOBER 31: President Donald Trump greets Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis during a campaign rally at the Hertz Arena on October 31, 2018 in Estero, Florida. President Trump continues traveling across America to help get the vote out for Republican candidates running for office. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Since his term ends soon, DeSantis might be angling for a new job in the Trump administration. Or perhaps, these past few months might be signs of bigger things to come in 2028.
During a recent appearance on Sean Hannity’s podcast, DeSantis teased a second presidential run and argued that, were it not for Trump, he would have locked up the nomination in 2024.
“We’ll see,” DeSantis said. “I think that in ’24, like in Iowa, the people that voted for Trump, if he wasn’t running, I would’ve gotten like 90% of those people.”
“They were conservative voters, right? They didn’t want the non-conservative; they wanted me,” he went on. “The timing didn’t work out, obviously.”
Is the second time the charm?
“You just got to see what happens,” DeSantis told Hannity.