After supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during his campaign and leaving the Never Back Down super PAC, Steve Cortes, a former Trump aide, had a change of heart and wrote an opinion piece headlined “Only Trump Can Save America.”
In the RealClear Politics article, Mr. Cortes stated that, contrary to his initial belief, that Republican supporters were prepared to forget about former President Donald Trump in this election cycle, he now admits, he “was wrong.”
Mr. Cortes advised President Trump during his campaigns in 2016 and 2020.
He declared in a Newsweek editorial in May 2023 that he supported Mr. DeSantis and that the “America First movement” was greater than President Trump.
With minimal allusions to President Trump, he said that Mr. DeSantis was “the best possible option to win the presidency in 2024,” but he later attacked the outgoing leader on social media.
Speaking on behalf of Never Back Down, Mr. Cortes was questioned regarding the discrepancy between President Trump’s continuous lead and Mr. DeSantis’s stagnant polling ratings. At a Twitter gathering, he made a remark about the governor being “way behind” in the polls, which sparked a wave of media attention over Mr. DeSantis’s struggling campaign.
Although Mr. Cortes resigned from his role as a Never Back Down spokesperson in October, he continued to back the governor.
“Those of us who backed Ron DeSantis—or the other Republican candidates—should read the room,” he wrote in his new op-ed.
He cited President Trump’s recent win in Iowa as well as his recent winning streak in the polls to argue that it was time to “coalesce and unite” behind the GOP nominee.
“We must prepare for a historic battle this autumn against our opponents who are causing daily damage to America,” Mr. Cortes wrote, evoking President Trump’s post-Iowa victory remarks in which he urged unity and praised his GOP rivals for once. “We do not have the luxury of further internal strife,” the president said.
Referencing the barrage of legal cases against President Trump as examples of corruption, he implied that supporters support Trump because they “admire the resilience of this outsider who is so reviled by the ruling class” and perceive him as their champion.
In his letter, Mr. Cortes claimed that as the general election approaches, spending time criticizing President Trump “only dilutes the power of our cause”.
Citing the border situation and inflation, Mr. Cortes called for unity against President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris being granted a second term.
“At such a flashpoint in history like this one, political unity among conservatives is an imperative,” he wrote.
“How do we save America? It is time to unify behind former President Trump as he leads the battle against the ruling class and the oligarchs intent on destroying the American way of life.”
Mr. Cortes declared that he would support the former president in the same manner as he “proudly did in 2016 and 2020.”
