Ron DeSantis Mocked for Ending 2024 Presidential Run with 'Fake' Churchill Quote: 'So On-Brand'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis concluded his 2024 presidential campaign with a fake quote attributed to Winston Churchill, prompting mockery and criticism. The campaign, marked by a failed launch on the social media platform X, utilized a feature resembling an online conference call. The glitch resulted in an underwhelming presidential announcement that went unnoticed globally.

Intercept reporter Ken Klippenstein characterized the campaign’s conclusion as a 'fitting coda for his train wreck of a campaign.' Activist Christine Pelosi sarcastically questioned, "DeSantis quit with a fake Churchill line! Maybe the actual quote is in one of the books he banned?" Conservative Bill Kristol suggested, "Churchill actually wrote, in Their Finest Hour, 'No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.' DeSantis neither deserved success nor had it."

As per the sources of Raw Story, Tara Setmayer, a former Republican turned Independent associated with the Lincoln Project, likened DeSantis’s campaign to a Greek tragedy rather than a Churchillian triumph. Mark Jacob, an ex-Chicago Tribune editor, emphasized, "It's so on-brand for DeSantis to attribute a quote to Churchill when there's no proof Churchill ever said it. An expert on quotations traces the saying to a 1930s Budweiser beer ad campaign."

The International Churchill Society discredited the quote, asserting, "We can find no attribution for either one of these... They are found nowhere in his canon... An almost equal number of sources found online credit these sayings to Abraham Lincoln. We base this on careful research in the canon of fifty million words by and about Churchill, including all of his books, articles, speeches, and papers.” According to some unconfirmed reports, the fake Churchill quote could have originated from a 1930s Budweiser ad. 

Forbes mocked DeSantis, suggesting he consider authentic Churchill quotes. One suggested quote was, "Success always demands a greater effort." Santiago Mayer of Voters mocked him by tweeting, "I’m sorry I can’t get over Ron DeSantis ending his campaign by misattributing a line from a Budweiser ad to Winston f--king Churchill lmao," Someone else quipped, "Winston Churchill went to war to defend democracy against the spread of fascism. DeSantis went to war with Mickey Mouse. We shouldn't mention them in the same sentence."

Florida Governor DeSantis' campaign announcement on X (formerly known as Twitter) featured the inaccurate Churchill quote: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." However, the International Churchill Society confirmed that Churchill never uttered those words during his lifetime. The episode further intensified criticism of the DeSantis campaign, which was frequently characterized as 'too online' by conservative activists. The use of a fake quote popularized on the internet added a surreal and ironic dimension to the conclusion of a campaign marked by peculiarities and missteps.