DeSantis needed to lean into that "Trump but competent" narrative that started congealing around him in the early days. Campaign with a necklace of finger bones or something like that and tell a little Trump-esque story about it.

Every time some bureaucrat tells me something is "impossible", this here necklace gets a little bigger; and he always come around to my way of thinking. Except now he only types 90% as fast as he used to, so he's got to learn to be that much more efficient; because that's no excuse for not getting the job done on time. And he knows if he doesn't get it done on time, this little necklace is going to get a little bit bigger; and he's going to have to work even harder to keep up. So very rarely do they fail to deliver after making that initial mistake.

But some combination of his donors not letting him do this and him listening to the stupidest campaign managers on the planet kept him from adopting this obvious strategy