Ron DeSantis spent years telling America he was the man to replace Donald Trump.
Now he's having lunch at Trump's golf club asking for any job Trump will give him.
And Trump just told his friends exactly what DeSantis said when the cameras weren't watching.
What Happened at Doral
The two men met a week ago Sunday at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.
It wasn't a casual visit.
DeSantis is term-limited out of the Florida governor's mansion in January and needs somewhere to land.
https://twitter.com/CryptidPolitics/status/2043478607398395971?s=20
Trump fired Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary and Pam Bondi as attorney general in recent weeks – and suddenly the call sheet got very interesting.
"Ron was begging me to be AG," Trump told a confidant afterward, according to six sources briefed on the discussions.
Let that framing sit for a second.
The man who had the mainstream media calling him "the future of the Republican Party" two years ago is now, by Trump's own account, begging.
The Real Ask
People close to the conversation say attorney general was never really the ask – it was a conversation starter.
"DeSantis is 100% not interested in the AG job, but he would be interested in two things: War secretary or Supreme Court, which would be his dream job," one source familiar with the talks told Axios.
The Supreme Court angle is the one Trump's team takes seriously.
DeSantis and Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly share a relationship one source described as "almost father-son" – and a DeSantis appointment to the high court would be, as that source put it, "a hell of a legacy for Trump."
Think about what that would mean.
https://twitter.com/DavidJHarrisJr/status/2046673922909684126?s=20
Lifetime tenure. Enormous influence. And for DeSantis specifically – a seat far away from the political arena where Trump owns every room he walks into.
Defense secretary is the other real option.
Trump had considered DeSantis for the Pentagon job before his second term began, before settling on Pete Hegseth.
Sources say Trump would revisit that choice if Hegseth departed – though Hegseth currently remains in good standing with the president.
Why Nobody Trusts DeSantis at Justice
The attorney general slot isn't complicated – it's a non-starter.
Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer and the Justice Department's current No. 2, is now acting attorney general after Bondi's exit.
Trump wants Blanche to move on indicting several political opponents as part of a "Grand Conspiracy" case being handled out of the Southern District of Florida.
"Todd has about 90 days to show what he can do," one adviser said.
Handing that portfolio to DeSantis – a man whose 2024 campaign produced some of the most vicious opposition research ever deployed against a sitting Republican president – is a risk nobody in Trump's inner circle wants to accept.
"There's a big reason the president wouldn't pick Ron to be his attorney general," one Trump adviser told Axios. "There's a way-too-high chance he would try to f*ck the president over."
https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/2046648723300618466?s=20
That's not a minor reservation.
That's people who watched the primary up close telling you exactly what they think of the man.
From "Future of the Party" to Asking for Work
Remember what the media was saying about DeSantis in 2022.
He won his governor's race by 19 points and every newspaper in the country declared him the heir apparent.
He had the ground game. He had the donor network. He had the national press. He had a book deal, a PAC, and a political operation that dwarfed anything a sitting governor had ever built.
And then Iowa happened.
He dropped out before New Hampshire even voted.
Trump had the voters. He always had the voters.
DeSantis spent 2023 and early 2024 learning that lesson the most expensive way possible.
Now the man who once had consultants whispering "President DeSantis" in his ear is calling Trump's Doral club to schedule lunch.
That's not a political setback.
https://twitter.com/RyanSaavedra/status/2046648571449979116?s=20
That's a complete reversal of fortune – and it happened in less than three years.
The Clarence Thomas Factor
If Trump puts DeSantis on the Court, he accomplishes three things at once.
He removes a future rival from the electoral arena permanently.
He locks in a reliable conservative vote for the next 30 years.
And he does it in a way that lets DeSantis save face – a prestigious appointment instead of a consolation prize.
DeSantis is a Harvard Law graduate and former federal prosecutor with the credentials to survive a confirmation hearing.
Whether the people around Trump who watched the primary up close will let it happen is another question entirely.
"Bygones are bygones," one Trump adviser said. "But that doesn't mean people forget."
The White House declined comment.
DeSantis spokesperson Alex Lanfranconi called the reporting "fake rumors" and said the governor "looks forward to continuing to work with President Trump on enforcing immigration laws, restoring the Everglades, and helping to reform college athletics."
That's a governor's statement.
The man writing it knows the governor's term ends in eight months.
Sources:
- Marc Caputo, "Scoop: DeSantis 'begging' Trump for prime role in administration," Axios, April 2026.
