DeSantis Campaign Faces Backlash After Promoting Unhinged Anti-LGBTQ Ad

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign shared a bizarre, meme-filled video Friday celebrating the governor’s anti-LGBTQ record and attacking Donald Trump’s 2016 pledge to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” The video, which was posted by the DeSantis War Room account and amplified by DeSantis influencers, has been widely condemned as homophobic, even by some Republicans.

The video opens with a string of clips of Trump making positive comments about the LGBTQ community, including one that came in the wake of the Pulse nightclub massacre in 2016, which took place in DeSantis’s home state. “To wrap up Pride Month, let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it,” the video is captioned, seemingly referring to Trump. Then the tone shifts to thumping, dark music and juxtaposes pictures of DeSantis—including one with lasers shooting out of his eyes—with images of bodybuilders and pop culture references, including Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) and Brad Pitt’s Achilles (300). The images are mixed with headlines and audio decrying DeSantis’s legislative attacks on LGBTQ people, including one claiming the laws “literally threaten trans existence.”

The video was widely criticized, including by some Republicans. Richard Grenell, who served as Trump’s Acting Director of National Intelligence and is the country’s first openly gay cabinet member, described the video as “undeniably homophobic.” Log Cabin Republicans, a large, pro-LGBTQ GOP group, called the ad “divisive and desperate” and said it “ventured into homophobic territory.” And Sarah Longwell, a moderate Republican strategist, wrote on Twitter that “the consultants who think this kind of ‘running to Trump’s right’ is going to be effective should be sacked.”

Several commentators noted Saturday that the ad’s tone and content reflected DeSantis’s campaign’s courting of the obsessions of young, very online right-wingers, including the so-called Groypers, led by white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nicholas Fuentes. “It’s an ad made by Groypers for Groypers with all sorts of weird little shoutouts (Patrick Bateman, 300),” wrote The Nation’s Jeet Heer.

The video was shared by Nate Hochman, a former National Review writer, and member of DeSantis’s communications team, who made headlines last year after he participated in a Twitter Spaces talk with Fuentes and praised him for getting “a lot of kids ‘based’.” It was also promoted by Pedro Gonzalez, a pro-DeSantis influencer and magazine editor whose work has been amplified by numerous members of the DeSantis campaign. Gonzalez was the subject last Tuesday of a major profile in (of all places) Breitbart, which published a series of racist and antisemitic texts Gonzalez allegedly sent in leaked group chats. In one, Gonzalez claimed he was “taking up arms with the Groypers.” Following the exposé, Rolling Stone reported that many pro-DeSantis influencers were “quick to rally” behind Gonzalez.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay cabinet member ever confirmed by the Senate (Grenell did not go through Senate confirmation), responded to the video on Sunday morning. “I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders,” Buttigieg said on CNN. In a Tweet, Buttegieg’s husband, gay rights activist Chasten Glezman Buttigieg, joked that the ad was “actually very gay.”

“I just don’t understand the mentality of someone getting up in the morning thinking he’s trying to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America,” the Transportation Secretary added.