Ron DeSantis launching Presidential bid on Twitter was a disaster. And Donald Trump loved it

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is viewed as former President Donald Trump's main rival for the Republican Party's nomination, couldn't have picked a more chaotic way to launch his Presidential bid.

The decision to launch his bid on Twitter was a bold move, but it really backfired as DeSantis's entry into the 2024 race for the White House was marred by technical glitches

The audio stream on Twitter Space crashed repeatedly, making it almost impossible for users to hear DeSantis' announcement and his hour-long interview with Twitter boss Elon Musk.

And fin! You can listen to a recording of this complete historic moment here. https://t.co/3vOUxIYhHm

— AMANDA TRAP HOUSE (@noturtlesoup17) May 24, 2023

A DeSaster

The hashtag #DeSaster was trending on Twitter as the DeSantis team tried to spin the narrative to "the launch created so much buzz that it broke the Internet." "We got so many people here that we are kind of melting the servers," said David Sacks, the nominal moderator.

As the hold music played for a long time, many users were removed from the Twitter Space. For almost 30 minutes, DeSantis was not heard once as the Twitter team was trying to fix the glitches.

Twitter Spaces in the past has been known for such glitches, and DeSantis took a big gamble that turned out to be a disaster for him.

Roasted by Democrats and Republicans alike

Not just Twitter users, politicians including Democrats and Republicans bashed the Florida Governor for launching his bid on Twitter.

Former President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to mock DeSantis' launch facing technical issues on Twitter. "Wow. The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER!" Trump wrote. "His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!"

He also shared a video that showed contrasting images of his campaign announcement last year and a Twitter screen showing the DeSantis discussion "Preparing to launch."

President Joe Biden also took a dig at DeSantis' Twitter Space disaster. He tweeted: "This link works," and shared link to a donation page for his reelection campaign.

This link works: https://t.co/9PzIJkseYI

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 24, 2023

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that she garnered more traffic in 2020, when she played hit video game Among Us with several popular streamers.

We had more people join when I played Among Us ?? https://t.co/zBoDCM0XmL

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 24, 2023

DeSantis joins the race to be US President

After an inauspicious start, and once the technical issues were fixed to an extent, DeSantis finally launched his long-awaited bid to become the President of US. "I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback," he said.

The 44-year-old said that it is time to end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years. DeSantis is a relative newcomer in US politics and was first been elected to the House of Representatives in 2012. In 2018, after failing to become a Senator, he was elected as the Senator of Florida.

A controversial figure, DeSantis enacted laws in Florida that made it easier to own a gun, restrict sex and gender identity education in schools, and curtailed abortion access.

"American decline is not inevitable - it is a choice. And we should choose a new direction - a path that will lead to American revitalization," DeSantis said during his launch on Twitter.

The Republican candidates for 2024 elections

The real fight to get the Republican nomination is between Trump and DeSantis, but there are few other candidates who are expecting to face Democratic President Joe Biden on the general election ballot in November 2024.

DeSantis, after his launch, joins other in the race to get the Republican nomination. This includes former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Tim Scott,and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Former Vice President Mike Pence expected to enter the race, but he has not yet announced a bid.

A newly released CNN poll shows that Donald Trump has consolidated the support of slightly above half of his party at this early stage of the race for the Republican nomination. But DeSantis' argument that he is the only Republican who can defeat Biden might change things in the next few months.