How Ron DeSantis Ignited a Republican Civil War Over Ukraine

GOP presidential hopefuls are scrambling to take sides.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media following his "State of the State" address in Tallahassee on March 7, 2023. CHENEY ORR/AFP via Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

As a leading contender for Republican presidential nomination next year, Ron DeSantis has the ability to force the rest of his party to quickly take sides on political fights. That’s what happened this week, after the Florida governor described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” in which the United States does not have a “vital interest.” On one side of this GOP divide is former President Donald Trump, a Putin apologist who is pulling his supporters toward an isolationist posture. On the other side, Republicans who might prefer not to criticize Trump or DeSantis are now being forced to disagree with the two GOP frontrunners by arguing that the war is indeed important to US interests.

DeSantis’ comments may have hastened the already growing fissures in the Republican Party over Ukraine, forcing those who want to support Ukraine to take a stand. On the Sunday shows today, three more Republicans criticized DeSantis’ isolationist approach.

In his statement to Tucker Carlson—who has criticized aid to Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky—DeSantis argued that checking the power of China is among the US’ top priorities while safeguarding Ukraine is not. A number of prominent Republicans clearly disagree, arguing, among other things, that an isolationist approach toward Ukraine would signal to China that the US would do little to counter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan. Chinese PresidentXi Jinping “wants to see how we respond [to the war in Ukraine], whether or not we can keep our allies together, whether or not NATO stays together or whether or not it strengthens NATO,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “So this is a bigger picture than just territory.”

Rounds tried not to directly confront DeSantis, but he didn’t dispute the idea that DeSantis’ statement may have been a result of primary politics. 

There’s “a clear vital national interest to support what is going on in Ukraine,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. Sununu, who has criticized DeSantis in the past and is considering his own run for president, argued that if the United States were to back out of the conflict, it would embolden China and Russia and send a message of weakness to US allies. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also mulling a 2024 presidential run, likewise came down on the other side from DeSantis. “The war in Ukraine is not a territorial dispute,” he told ABC’s Jon Karl in an interview that aired in part on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “It’s a Russian invasion.”

Both Sununu and Pence argued that curtailing support for Ukraine now could land the US in the position of having to send troops to Europe to defend NATO allies in the future.

DeSantis’ comments to Carlson came ahead of three important developments in the war: the International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for Putin’s arrest on war crimes; Putin’s visit to the captured Ukrainian city of Mariupol this weekend, staking claim to the territory; and Xi’s upcoming visit to Russia. The Chinese leader’s trip, in particular, underscores the point DeSantis’ critics are making.

But DeSantis, who is courting Trump supporters as he builds toward an expected presidential campaign, chose to adopt a view closer to Trump’s. Trump has said that, were he president, he would have let Russia annex parts of Ukraine. When it comes to winning a GOP primary, taking the Trump position may prove to be the safest bet. That’s the side DeSantis picked, and now he’s forcing other presidential hopefuls and GOP leaders to make a different bet.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate