Republican Ron DeSantis will announce his 2024 US presidential bid on Wednesday in a live Twitter chat with Elon Musk, a source told AFP on Tuesday.

The information was confirmed by the owner of the social network. “I’m going to interview Ron DeSantis and he has an important announcement to make,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

The two men are scheduled to speak at 18:00 Washington time (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

The Florida governor is considered Donald Trump’s main challenger for the Republican nomination.

A tough road for DeSantis

In 2018, the former naval officer was narrowly elected to lead Florida in the southeastern United States after receiving the support of Trump, who was then in the White House.

He has since distanced himself from the billionaire and gained notoriety for multiplying ultraconservative attacks on education and immigration.

But Ron DeSantis’ path to the White House is fraught with difficulties.

The 44-year-old governor, on whom many conservatives have pinned their hopes for the presidency after his triumphant re-election in Florida in November 2022, is, according to numerous reports, significantly inferior to Donald Trump, the official candidate as of November 16, 2022. public opinion polls.

His main flaw? A lack of charisma reported by all parties.

“Witch Hunt”

Amidst multiple legal investigations, Donald Trump continues to decry the “witch hunt” — a call to unify his largely loyal base — and plunged headlong into his second run for the White House.

The former president boasts of having collected several million dollars since his historic April 4 indictment in a New York court, which was the subject of a frenzy of media coverage.

However, in this showdown with Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis can count on a massive $110 million war fund that he plans to cash in on to try to make up the gap by flooding the country with ads.

In a recent video produced by his political action committee, a man puts a “DeSantis for President” sticker on a car to cover up “Trump 2016.”

That’s a summary of the message the governor wants to send voters: To the 76-year-old billionaire, Ron DeSantis says he embodies the new guard.

The two men are the two front-runners for the Republican nomination.

Other announced Republican candidates – Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson – rarely exceed 5% of voting intentions.

The battle promises to be fierce. The feud between the two men began long before the Florida governor entered the arena, with harsh statements and rallies.

The Republican nominee will face the Democratic nominee in the November 2024 primary.