DeSantis memoir tops bestseller list as Trump rolls out new $99 photo book

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Donald Trump still may have a narrow edge on Ron DeSantis in the polls of a hypothetical matchup for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, but the Florida governor has one over on his former ally in another area: the New York Times bestseller list

Mr DeSantis’s memoir, The Courage to Be Free, which came out in February, is number one on the nonfiction charts, though the Times notes the ranking may be due to bulk ordering, which publishing houses sometimes use to boost their own ratings.

The book is widely seen as the Florida Republican’s most direct indication yet he’s starting to campaign on the national stage, though he still hasn’t announced any formal intention to seek the White House.

The memoir has been the subject of glowing coverage in outlets like the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Fox News, New York Post, and British paper The Times, speculated to be the latest sign the media mogul is shifting his support away from Mr Trump.

In a recent profile in the Post, the article ends with a crowd of fawning patrons in a diner urging the Republican, “You need to run for president.”

Donald Trump, who has a forthcoming new title of his own, a $99 collection of letters from celebrities and politicians to the billionaire called Letters to Trump, has been stepping up his attacks in recent months on his rumoured GOP challenger, branding him “Ron DeSanctimonious” and making unproven allegations of sexual misconduct.

In his memoir, Mr DeSantis avoids going for the jugular against Mr Trump, instead praising his “unique star power” and ability to offer something outside “the old-guard way of doing business .”

The polls and the conservative media sphere may be growing increasingly friendly to Mr DeSantis, but the book has been panned in some quarters.

A review in The New York Times said the memoir made Mr DeSantis sound like a “mechanical try-hard — someone who has expended a lot of effort studying which way the wind is blowing in the Republican Party and is learning how to comport himself accordingly.”

Critic Jennifer Szalai argued the work shows Mr DeSantis “really, really wants to run for president in 2024 and knows he needs the grievance vote, but is also trying his best to tiptoe around the Trump dragon,” and is using his slightly more buttoned-up image to conceal serious attacks on civil liberties and sexual minorities in Florida that have occured under his administration.