Assessing DeSantis’s Opening Bid for the White House (2023)

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced his presidential bid on Wednesday night in a livestream on Twitter that was delayed by technical difficulties and peppered with occasionally misleading claims.

Here’s a fact check of some of his claims.

What WAS Said

“Biden’s also politicized the military and caused recruiting to plummet.”

This lacks evidence. Military leaders have recently warned that several branches of the armed forces are struggling to meet recruiting targets, but the reasons they have cited have little to do with President Biden. Namely, many younger Americans simply fail to qualify.

A 2020 Pentagon study found that just 23 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds can meet service standards, with many failing the military’s entrance exams or fitness and mental tests. That rate decreased by six percentage points from the previous study in 2017.

Army leaders addressed recruiting issues in a congressional hearing in April, noting that the issue has been ongoing.

“The difficult recruiting landscape we face didn’t happen in a year, and it’s going to take us more than a year to turn this around,” said Christine Wormuth, the secretary of the army.

Ms. Wormuth also noted that a Pentagon survey of 2,400 people ages 16 to 28 had asked about obstacles to enlisting. Respondents cited fear of injury and death as the top concern while cultural and political issues — “wokeness in the military or the Covid vaccine mandate, for example — those were relatively low on the list of barriers to service,” she said.

What WAS Said

“In Florida, our crime rate is at a 50-year low. You look at the top 25 cities for crime in America, Florida does not rank amongst the top 25.”

This is largely true. The state’s crime rate did fall to a 50-year low in 2021, but Mr. DeSantis omits a big caveat: Many law enforcement agencies in the state switched to a different reporting methodology and the data is provisional and incomplete in many cases, The Tampa Bay Times reported.

Data from just 59 percent of Florida agencies covering 57.5 percent of the population was used for the state’s total aggregate crime rate in 2021. That mirrors a nationwide trend: Across the country, nearly 40 percent of law enforcement agencies failed to report 2021 crime data because of the new methodology.

No Florida city ranked near the top for violent crime rate compiled by private companies and news outlets. But it’s worth noting the Federal Bureau of Investigation and criminal justice experts have also long advised against comparing crime rates across cities, given the wide variation in population size and demographics.

What WAS Said

“Nobody probably has made Disney more money than me because they were open during Covid. And they were closed in California and that went on for many, many months where literally, I had all the theme parks in Florida opened in 2020.”

This is exaggerated. Disney World in Florida closed on March 15, 2020, along with every other Disney theme park worldwide. It reopened in July, after being shut down for four months. Disney resorts in Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo also reopened in 2020 after being closed for months. Disneyland in California reopened April 30, 2021, after a yearlong shutdown, the longest among the Disney resorts, once the state allowed theme parks to welcome back visitors.

Mr. DeSantis is also downplaying his own actions during the coronavirus pandemic. He issued an executive order on April 1, 2020, directing all residents in Florida to “limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary.” While the order did not explicitly close theme parks, it limited openings to essential services and activities, and prohibited gatherings of more than 10 people. The order expired on May 1.

What WAS Said

“The whole book ban thing is a hoax. There’s not been a single book banned in the state of Florida. You can go buy or use whatever book you want.”

This is misleading. There has been no statewide ban of a book, but Mr. DeSantis is vastly playing down the extent to which individual school districts and libraries in parts of the state have removed books. In fact, Florida ranks second, behind Texas, as the state with the most bans at 357, according to PEN America, a nonprofit that supports free expression.

Legislation signed by Mr. DeSantis limiting discussion of sexual orientation, gender identity and race has led teachers and administrations to remove books. Mr. DeSantis’s own press office has said that “school districts are required to report the number of books removed from schools based on legislation passed in 2022.” The press office reported 175 books removed across the state.

Some of those books include a picture book about two male penguins raising a chick, Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

What WAS Said

“Actually, the one this week was that Miami-Dade County took a book that was about poems from I think like Biden’s inauguration, and they moved it from the elementary school library to the middle school library.”

This requires context. The Bob Graham Education Center, which teaches students from prekindergarten through eighth grade in Miami-Dade County, moved the poem “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman from the elementary school section of the school media center to the middle school section.

Mr. DeSantis argued that this did not constitute a ban, as the book was not removed entirely. But nonetheless, access has been limited.

A spokeswoman for the school district said that elementary school students who wish to read the poem, or any other book deemed appropriate only for older students, would have to demonstrate that they can read at a middle school level. Otherwise, the book will not be available to elementary school students.

According to the American Library Association, restrictions on books and resources “based solely on the chronological age” of users violates its library bill of rights. Libraries “should not resort to age restrictions in an effort to avoid actual or anticipated objections,” the association said.

What WAS Said

“I’d reverse what Biden’s doing. You need to shut the border down. You should not be entertaining these asylum claims for people crossing illegally.”

This is misleading. Presidents cannot simply stop processing all asylum claims based on whether migrants cross the border illegally, as previous administrations have learned. Moreover, the Biden administration has actually imposed new restrictions on asylum that essentially align with what Mr. DeSantis suggested: As of May 11, migrants who unlawfully enter the United States are generally presumed to be ineligible for asylum, unless they can demonstrate an exception.

But much like his predecessor’s attempts, Mr. Biden’s efforts to limit asylum for those crossing the border unlawfully may face legal and procedural hurdles.

Before the Trump administration, the United States could not legally turn away migrants who sought asylum, even if they crossed the border illegally, without processing their claims. In 2018, the Trump administration sought to overhaul asylum law and announce new rules effectively barring migrants who crossed illegally from seeking asylum. Almost immediately, the Supreme Court barred the policy from taking effect, and an appeals court eventually ruled that it was unlawful.

Another Trump administration rule, announced in 2019, denied asylum to migrants if they had passed through another country and failed to apply for asylum there. An appeals court struck down that rule in 2020.

Beginning in 2020, the Trump administration also used Title 42, a public health law that allows the government to swiftly expel people who crossed the border illegally. The Biden administration continued the policy until May 11, when the designation of a public health crisis ended, and with it the use of Title 42.

What WAS Said

“If I’m president, we are not doing a central bank digital currency. I think that that would be a huge, huge imposition on people’s financial freedoms and financial privacy. By the way, what would the logical result of this be? If the central authority has oversight over this, of course they’re going to start imposing E.S.G. criteria.”

This lacks evidence. A central bank digital currency would effectively be the digital version of a dollar bill. The Federal Reserve has begun researching its use but has said it has not decided about issuing such a currency and would only do so with support from Congress. Mr. DeSantis is speculating, with no factual basis, that the government would use the digital currency to control or limit consumer spending to align with environmental and social goals like curbing consumption of fossil fuels or tightening gun control.

In a fact sheet, the Fed noted that a digital currency would not replace current forms of money and would protect consumer privacy. And several banking experts told PolitiFact that current laws prohibit the spending surveillance and controls that Mr. DeSantis warned of.