Trump ‘outsider’ status gives him another leg up on challengers

Former President Donald Trump is widely seen as a political outsider by Republican voters, while Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is viewed as part of the political establishment, a new poll revealed.

Most Republican primary voters, 69%, look at Trump as a political outsider, while 26% see him as an insider, according to the latest Monmouth University poll. The survey showed a staggering difference between the dominant front-runner in the 2024 GOP race and DeSantis, with 57% of Republican voters believing the Florida governor is inside the political establishment and 33% not. Similarly, 56% of respondents said they view former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley as part of the political establishment.

SUPREME COURT DENIES REQUEST BY ALABAMA TO USE NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAPS

Trump became the first person without government or military experience ever to hold the Oval Office in 2016. Since his presidency, Trump has cited his status as a political outsider in his reelection campaign and has used his legal woes as leverage.

After Trump was arrested and booked at an Atlanta jail on more than a dozen felony charges for allegedly subverting Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results, the former president used his mug shot to fundraise.

An advertisement paid for by MAGA, Inc., highlighted Trump as the first president to be impeached twice and mentioned his four indictments this year. The video from May used comments from Trump’s commencement address at Liberty University in 2017.

“Relish the opportunity to be an outsider,” Trump said. “Embrace that label. Being an outsider is fine. Embrace the label because it’s the outsiders who change the world and who make a real and lasting difference.”

In the earlier days of his campaign, DeSantis pushed an anti-establishment message, attacking his own party rather than aligning himself with the elites and the establishment. The Florida governor has rejected labels of being a product of the establishment, along with attacks from Trump calling him a “RINO globalist.”

“How many establishment Republicans would have sent illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard?” DeSantis asked on Newsmax in May. “How many establishment Republicans would have stood up against Disney? How many establishment Republicans would have signed the bill that I just signed to ban land purchases from people affiliated with the CCP in the state of Florida?”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

DeSantis struck down a resurgence of the establishment Republicans long before launching his presidential bid, echoing Trump’s brand of conservative populism during a Conservative Political Action Conference speech in 2021.

“We cannot, we will not go back to the days of the failed Republican establishment of yesteryear,” DeSantis said.