Here Are The Best Memes From Twitter’s Ron DeSantis Fiasco

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chose to launch his presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces, an ill-fated decision hyped up by comically inept Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who has made several tweaks to Twitter’s increasingly glitchy interface, and fired up to 80% of Twitter’s workforce.

Of course, DeSantis’ event proved a disaster, marked by long periods of awkward silence and echoing audio, with the mobile app repeatedly crashing. The failure inspired the hashtag #DeSaster to trend on the site.

DeSantis later claimed that his announcement “broke the internet because so many people were excited about being on that Twitter Space.” Commentators found the claim amusing.

Twitch streamer/political commentator Hasan Piker said that his single Twitch channel had successfully handled more than 200,000 people, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she had attracted a far bigger crowd than DeSantis while playing Among Us.

The DeSantis discourse inspired Piker and Ocasio-Cortez to reconnect for another round of gaming.

Meanwhile, a flood of memes mocking DeSantis spread across Twitter, with many taking delight in the Florida governor’s public humiliation.

DeSantis is widely despised by progressives across the internet, due to his ongoing “war on woke” in Florida, with DeSantis viciously attacking LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, education, and igniting a ridiculous culture war with Disney that has escalated into an ugly legal battle.

Left-wing culture warriors seek to turn DeSantis into a walking punchline and viewed his glitchy Twitter announcement as a gift, pointing out that even conservatives were starting to turn on him.

Many compared the failed presidential launch to the exploding rockets of Musk’s Space X.

Some have even taken to cheering on Donald Trump’s relentless, characteristically catty attacks on DeSantis, who Trump refers to as “Meatball Ron,” “Ron DeSanctimonious,” and most recently, “Rob.”

Trump didn’t disappoint, posting a series of insults against DeSantis on Truth Social, along with a bizarre, AI-generated meme depicting Satan and Adolf Hitler joining the Twitter Space.

Of course, Trump also made a Space X reference.

Some noted that the dynamic between the two political rivals resembled that of Trump and Jeb(!) Bush, who Trump mercilessly mocked on the debate stage; it was like watching Nelson Muntz debate Martin Prince.

One particularly inspired Twitter user inserted audio of DeSantis speaking over a video clip of Grand Theft Auto, noting that DeSantis’ culture war posturing, combined with his unfortunate voice, resembled the on-the-nose political satire the series is famous for.

Even President Joe Biden got in on the fun, posting a campaign donation link on Twitter with the simple-but-devastating caption: “This link works.”

None of the memes, however, were half as funny as the official campaign ad from DeSantis’ team, which was so poorly executed that many Twitter users initially believed it was a satirical clip, or a prank.

The ad features footage of DeSantis and Elon Musk, seemingly edited together at random, with monotonous narration from DeSantis that genuinely sounds like AI audio. One Twitter user even downloaded the video, believing that “there is a 80-90 percent chance they are going to delete this because of how embarrassing it is.”

News outlets (even Fox News) reported on the DeSantis Twitter Space as an embarrassing fiasco. But Elon Musk, ever the optimist, attempted to frame the bad publicity as a success.