Recently FL Gov. Ron DeSantis sat down with Piers Morgan for a lengthy interview which drops at Fox Nation on Thursday. Bits of it have been hitting the internet throughout much of the day on Wednesday, but in the evening Fox News released some interesting foreign policy comments.

The governor began talking foreign policy, which is not something he has addressed extensively.

DeSantis on China

Apparently Ron DeSantis isn’t the soft isolationist that some Republicans would want him to be. In fact, he told Morgan that Taiwan is of “critical interest” to the United States.

“And if China did invade Taiwan?” Morgan asked.

He replied:

That would be aggression. Absolutely would be aggression.

So should the US respond?

So I would say that Taiwan is a strong ally of the United States. I think that that’s a critical interest. I think it’s for us, but also for our key allies like Japan and South Korea.

And I think overall, the number one issue that we face internationally is checking the growth and the rise of China. They’re much more powerful, I think, than Putin and Russia are, and they really represent the biggest threat that we’ve seen to our ability to lead since the Soviet Union.

When it comes to China, DeSantis as Florida governor has shown himself to be tough on the Communist nation, perhaps more so than Donald Trump. In February, for example, he proposed a ban on TikTok and other platforms with connections to China from state devices. He also has promised legislation to keep China and its interest from buying lands surrounding military bases, as well as banning its gifts to Florida universities. Because of these actions, and others, Ron DeSantis looks like he would be tougher on China than President Trump was.

So What About Ukraine?

Last week, Ron DeSantis described Ukraine’s war with Russia as a “territorial dispute,” and that defending Ukraine is not in the interest of the US.

However, in his interview with Morgan, the governor appears to have backtracked — kind of.

Morgan asked DeSantis if he regretted using the phrase “territorial dispute,” to which he replied:

Well, I think it’s been mischaracterized. Obviously, Russia invaded (last year) — that was wrong. They invaded Crimea and took that in 2014 — That was wrong.

Credit: DonkeyHotey/flickr/CC BY 2.0.

He then continued by saying that the “territorial dispute” he referenced was over the Donbas and Crimea, where he noted that there are a lot of ethnic Russians.

 … so it wasn’t that I thought Russia had a right to that, and so if I should have made that more clear, I could have done it, but I think the larger point is, okay, Russia is not showing the ability to take over Ukraine, to topple the government or certainly to threaten NATO. That’s a good thing. I just don’t think that’s a sufficient interest for us to escalate more involvement. I would not want to see American troops involved there. But the idea that I think somehow Russia was justified (in invading) – that’s nonsense …

So, that was the point I was trying to make but Russia was wrong to invade.

Okay, that’s kind of a word salad, but DeSantis didn’t mince words about Vladimir Putin. Calling him a “gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons,” he stated:

I think he is a war criminal … I do think that he should be held accountable.

Then how can one describe a DeSantis foreign policy?

David Reaboi, a conservative national security strategist whom DeSantis has hosted, said:

I think he’s kind of dead-center where Republican voters are, which is to say that he’s neither an isolationist nor a neoconservative, he’s just a Jacksonian.

So … a Jacksonian. What does that mean?

In short, a Jacksonian does not seek to install American democracy on foreign shores. However, if the military is to be used, it should be used with as much force as needed to achieve victory. As such, DeSantis favors a robust military, and would most likely increase military spending.

Moreover, as Sen. Tom Cotton said:

After law school, Governor DeSantis didn’t take a Wall Street job or join a human rights N.G.O. He joined the military, which both reflected his worldview and probably further shaped it, as did his choice to serve six years on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

DeSantis Takes on Trump with Piers Morgan

The Florida governor has been largely silent as Donald Trump has levied insults and accusations at him. As the late Rush Limbaugh would say, “They tell you whom they fear,” and while Limbaugh was speaking of liberals, the same could apply to the former president. He fears Ron DeSantis.

As Morgan wrote at the New York Post:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has finally taken the gloves off and launched a blistering attack on his former mentor, former President Donald Trump.

Following are some of the shots that the governor took at Trump. On his handling of Covid, for instance:

I would have fired somebody like Fauci. I think he got way too big for his britches, and I think he did a lot of damage.

On the constant drama in the Trump White House:

So, the way we run the government, I think, is no daily drama, focus on the big picture and put points on the board, and I think that’s something that’s very important.

And the Trump insult names, like “Ron DeSanctimonious:”

I don’t know how to spell the sanctimonious one. I don’t really know what it means, but I kinda like it, it’s long, it’s got a lot of vowels. We’ll go with that, that’s fine. I mean, you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner because that’s what we’ve been able to do in Florida, is put a lot of points on the board and really take this state to the next level.

But Donald Trump seems to be quite perturbed about the interview, and tweeted this diatribe at Truth Social:

Trump reads the Piers Morgan interview, as "Ron DeSanctimonious" "finally admitting he’s in the race"

He calls him a "disciple of Paul Ryan," & a "big Lockdown Governor"

DeSantis rising profile, Trump says, "is all a mirage." He concludes, "we don’t want Ron as our president!" pic.twitter.com/k9nbgp4bVY

— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) March 22, 2023

Meanwhile, Piers Morgan is having a chuckle at Trump’s expense. Here he talks about his DeSantis interview — as well as his past interviews with Trump — with Kellyanne Conway.

In conclusion, let’s be realistic here: no matter how coy he acts, Ron DeSantis is running for president. So for us political junkies, and even just for those who care about the future of America, the Piers Morgan interview with Ron DeSantis is a must-see. I have the distinct feeling that we’ll see a successful man who is far from the “RINO” goombah that Donald Trump describes. Remember: they tell you whom they fear. 

Featured image: Photoshop compilation by Brand X Studio/used by permission.