'Star Wars' Actor Mark Hamill Pokes Fun at Ron DeSantis for Dropping Out With His Own Made-Up Quote

On Sunday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis concluded his bid for president in 2024 and supported the outgoing former President Donald Trump. Similar to his unsatisfactory campaign, DeSantis' video announcing the suspension was not received well by netizens since it used a quotation and wrongly attributed it to Winston Churchill. He wrote, "Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." As reported by HuffPost, once DeSantis tweeted the statement, actor Mark Hamill came up with his own 'quote' to mock the politician. The actor wrote on Twitter, "‘You belong in the Terrible Candidates Hall of Fame.’ - Mark Hamill." 

Although the British Prime Minister is often incorrectly tied to the phrase used by DeSantis, the International Churchill Society, a group that investigates Churchill's life and achievements, claims there is no proof that Churchill ever uttered it. It disproved the quote's veracity more than ten years ago, as many people swiftly noted. The society mentioned in 2013, "Not only did Churchill never say those words—he never said the similar words more usually attributed to him, which are: 'Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.'"

Nikki Haley, 51, an Indian American and former governor of South Carolina, is the only remaining Republican against  Donald Trump, 77, who is running for a second term as president. Trump, who held the presidency from January 2017 to January 2021, was defeated by incumbent Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential contest. But now, Trump is the most popular Republican presidential candidate. He won the Iowa Caucus last week as well as the New Hampshire primary.

With DeSantis' resignation, Trump and Haley are now the only two candidates in the Republican primary, down from their previous standing as a formidable duo. Political analysts now predict that the former President will be the party's candidate and that Trump vs. Biden in November 2024 will be a rerun of the 2020 presidential contest.

The problems for DeSantis started even before he joined the race. Republicans gathered behind Trump in March after his indictment in New York on allegations he plotted to hide payments of hush money to a porn actress. This led to a notable surge in the former President's position in the polls. Many of them accepted Trump's assertion that he was being targeted by law enforcement to prevent him from winning the presidency. Many supporters of DeSantis argue that the governor waited too long to enter the race; he did so in May, more than six months after Trump did.

As a result, DeSantis was vulnerable to scathing criticism from Trump, and the governor did nothing to defend himself beyond stating he was not running for office. In May 2023, DeSantis officially announced his candidacy for president via Twitter. It was an unlucky beginning for a campaign based on the governor's managerial acumen. Then, the campaign employed too many people and spent money quickly. About 38 employees were let go by DeSantis in July, and he fired his campaign manager in August, creating a storyline of internal turmoil that was difficult to refute.