Ron DeSantis Campaign Desperately Tries To Spin Glitchy 2024 Launch With Merch
GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’ campaign on Thursday released a new line of merchandise that attempted to spin the Florida governor’s glitchy 2024 launch on Twitter.
T-shirts and mugs available to buy on the Republican fundraising platform WinRed boast that “DeSantis Breaks Systems.” It doubles down on the claim from the Florida governor’s team that his popularity “broke the internet” with the launch.
On Twitter, the DeSantis campaign wrote: “Breaking Twitter was just the warmup… Help us break Washington next.”
Breaking Twitter was just the warmup...
Help us break Washington next. Secure yours now ⬇️https://t.co/pWQ497yEmd— Team DeSantis (@TeamDeSantis) May 25, 2023
However, the campaign’s rhetoric has been fiercely called into question.
Per The New York Times, DeSantis’ announcement had a high of about 300,000 concurrent listeners. As of Thursday, there’d been 3.4 million listeners in total.
But BuzzFeed’s rubber band/watermelon stunt in 2016 drew in more than double the concurrent viewers on Facebook, as did Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo’s accidental Instagram Live in a sauna.
Multiple other events have also been broadcast to vastly more people online, according to Insider.
See some of the responses to the new merchandise here:
cringe
— Pat Dennis (@patdennis) May 25, 2023
Trying to make a negative a positive. Nice try.
— Iamsan74 (@iamsan74) May 26, 2023
Ron breaks everything he touches.
— Mimi (@jrzygirlinfla) May 26, 2023
If you loved how we broke an audio stream, you'll love how we break your grandpa being able to get his monthly social security deposit. https://t.co/Ik41i4pkUN
— austerity is theft (@wideofthepost) May 26, 2023
I’m concerned that people think Twitter Spaces is the entire internet….
— BT (@BTeneyck54) May 26, 2023
When breaking Florida isn’t enough https://t.co/sXAjZwfsIy
— FreeStateFl (@TheFreeState_FL) May 26, 2023
so your sales pitch is you break everything you touch?
— Aaron (@AJWalton11) May 25, 2023
Ron DeSantis’ team selling merchandise invoking their glitch-ridden campaign launch: “Our campaign launch broke the internet” https://t.co/BN8Gjfx9ln
— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch) May 25, 2023
How to try to make a negative seem like s positive. https://t.co/thEolMCxxI
— Maggie Leber (@MaggieL) May 26, 2023
Wait...is his digital team......dunking on him?
I'm very confused by this https://t.co/aslQgybmsq— Jeffrey Kahn (@JeffEKahn) May 25, 2023