Ron DeSantis, the current Governor of Florida, has had a meteoric rise in the party. When Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, there was one name that jumped out as his obvious rival for the Republican nomination.
The first signs of conflict appeared in 2019, when deSantis fired one of his advisers, Susie Wilies, blaming her for an email leak. Trump initially also excluded Wiles from his political team, but subsequently brought her back on board. The 2022 midterm elections were a critical blow to the alliance.