Protesters demonstrated outside a luxury hotel in Miami as wealth donors to newly announced 2024 candidate Ron DeSantis met.

The protest assembled outside the city’s Four Seasons hotel hours before Mr DeSantis announced his bid for the presidency in a chaotic Twitter event with Elon Musk. Mr DeSantis was not actually present at the hotel, according to the Miami Herald.

Graeme Massie filed this report last night.

“Governor Ron DeSantis has inflicted deep and lasting damage upon our state, eroding the fundamental rights of our residents and visitors while exploiting the word ‘free’ as a hollow campaign slogan,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida.

The group warned LGBT+ people traveling to the state last month after the governor advanced a sweeping set of policies targeting LGBT+ people, particularly transgender youth, that have echoed in state legislatures across the US.

Other advisories followed from the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP, two of the oldest and largest civil rights advocacy groups in the US.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT+ political advocacy group, also has joined Equality Florida’s advisory.

Alex Woodward reports on how three of the largest civil rights groups in the country issued Florida travel advisories in an effort to draw attention to the presidential candidate’s far-right campaign:

As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis prepares to announce his official bid for president of the United States, Americans are getting a taste of what a future under Mr DeSantis could look like.

For months, Mr DeSantis, 44, has been called a possible frontrunner for the GOP nomination in the media because of his reputation for passing conservative legislation and comfortable re-election to the governor’s mansion.

From passing a six-week abortion ban to eliminating concealed carry permits, Mr DeSantis has proven he is willing to pass controversial legislation in the name of uniting the state under right-leaning values.

And the Florida governor seems to be hoping for the same if he were to become US president.

Here’s what Mr DeSantis has said about the future of the US and what he thinks of certain policies:

“I prefer to stay out of politics.” Those were Elon Musk’s words when forced in September 2021 to respond to a claim by Texas Governor Greg Abbott that he supported the state’s anti-abortion laws.

If he really does prefer to stay out of politics, however, Musk has a funny way of showing it. Over his many years of fame as the chief executive of Tesla, SpaceX, and now Twitter, the South African-born tycoon has attacked everyone and everything from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders through individual regulatory officials to Covid rules, trade unions, and “pronouns”.

Since 2022, his public political stances have taken a sharp rightward turn as he declared his support for the Republican Party, aligned himself with far-right activists on Twitter, disparaged transgender rights, embraced conservative conspiracy theories, and pledged to save civilisation from the “woke mind virus”.

Much of Mr DeSantis’s case for being president has focused on electability, with his pitch being that he is the only Republican candidate who can beat President Joe Biden. Similarly, Mr DeSantis has sold himself as a conservative warrior who has passed legislation restricting abortion access and curtailing how sexual orientation and gender identity are taught in schools.

At the same time, his donors argue that his relative youth – at age 44, he is the youngest male governor in the country – as well as his focus on the environment, could help him appeal to moderate voters.

“Biggest communications blunder”?

As Ron DeSantis announces his presidential campaign, his main rival Donald Trump has seized on the rumour that the Florida Governor has been spotted eating pudding with his bare hands.

This is the bizarre story behind the saga that’s now been turned into a campaign insult in the burgeoning fight between the ex-president and his former ally.

Protesters demonstrated outside a luxury hotel in Miami as wealth donors to newly announced 2024 candidate Ron DeSantis met.

The protest assembled outside the city’s Four Seasons hotel hours before Mr DeSantis announced his bid for the presidency in a chaotic Twitter event with Elon Musk. Mr DeSantis was not actually present at the hotel, according to the Miami Herald.

The Four Seasons crowd – which seemingly numbered around 100 protesters, according to the Miami Herald – chanted “F*** DeSantis” as the meeting took place.

John Bowden profiles the Yale-educated governor who has become the highest-profile Republican seeking to dethrone Donald Trump.

Donald Trump’s campaign launched a new ad on Twitter taking aim at Ron DeSantis moments after the Florida governor announced his formal bid for the 2024 presidency.

The ad includes images of Mr DeSantis with president Joe Biden and asks: “Why would we ever settle for Trump imposters?”

It also includes a clip of Mr DeSantis sitting with a child and pointing to a Trump campaign sign as the governor is heard reading, “Make America Great Again.”