Can Ron DeSantis Incept Trump’s Cult of Personality?

As the Florida governor shows his bully stripes, Inside the Hive asks what his 2024 chances could be. Plus, ‘Creem’ rides again

Inside the Ron DeSantis Plan to Overthrow Trump and Trumpism

This week Vanity Fair published Gabe Sherman’s profile of Florida Governor and would-be Trump slayer Ron DeSantis [https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/ron-desantis-the-making-and-remaking-of-a-maga-heir]. On Inside the Hive, Joe Hagan and Emily Jane Fox discuss whether DeSantis’s aggressive push for national prominence—coming as Trump's legal peril mounts and a slew of new Trump books hits stores this fall—signal the last throes of the Ex-POTUS’ political potency. The answer, if DeSantis has anything to do with it, is clearly yes. But as DeSantis' polling takes a hit following his controversial immigration stunt, the next question becomes: Can a charmless bully survive the spotlight? 

Plus: A conversation with J.J. Kramer, who has revived his father’s storied rock magazine Creem decades after it stopped publishing. The irreverent 1970s magazine still bills itself as “America’s Only Rock ’n Roll Magazine,” but does rock and roll still matter? And what does it mean in 2022? Kramer, who inherited the magazine when he was four years old, has an idea—and big dreams.