One of the great joys of tracking the Red Trickle is watching right-wing media gut Donald Trump as if he were a fish on a slab. Everyone on the rabid right seems to be hot and heavy for Ron DeSantis, and you know darn well that the thief of nuclear secrets is losing what little mind he still has.

The conservative National Review says that Republicans should “abandon the ridiculous notion that Donald Trump is an electoral advantage for the party…Republicans: Trump is your problem. Wake up.” Meanwhile, the Rupert Murdoch empire is jeering at “Trumpty Dumpty” (New York Post), blaring that “Trump is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser” (Wall Street Journal), and declaring that “Ron DeSantis is the New Republican Leader” (Fox News). The NY Post called DeSantis “DeFuture.”

If there’s anything that truly terrifies Trump more than prison, it’s the prospect of being branded a loser and ceding the spotlight to somebody else. That explains why, even before DeSantis scored his landslide gubernatorial victory, Trump was already working himself into a lather, trashing DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” and rebooting the bullying bullshit and toxic innuendo that have sickened us these past six years.

For instance: “I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I believe he could hurt himself badly…If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife.”

Hey, maybe there’s Ron dirt in those Mar-a-Lago documents; more likely, this is just a wounded beast wheezing hot air. Trump seems to think it’s still 2016, when he could get away with ridiculing Jeb Bush’s energy, Carly Fiorina’s face, Marco Rubio’s height, Ted Cruz’s father, and Chris Christie’s girth.

But today there’s far less fear of the big bad wolf – and a growing willingness on the Republican right to acknowledge that in the six years since the guy’s ascent, the GOP lost the House, the Senate, and the presidency. As Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal puts it, “Since his unlikely victory in 2016 against the widely disliked Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump has a perfect record of electoral defeat.” The party may yet reclaim the House, once all the midterm votes are in, but by one of the thinnest seat margins in modern history. (Red wave propagandists had predicted as much as a 50-seat margin; it’s shaping up to be closer to 5.)

By contrast, DeSantis in his Florida landslide virtually ran the table – pulling in everyone from anti-vaxxers and QAnon nuts to independents (52 percent of them), women (52 percent), suburbanites (58 percent) and Hispanics (57 percent). Alas, those stats did’t sit well with Trump, who lives in fear that somebody else’s success is a diminishment of him. Which explains why Trump quickly posted this dick-measuring missive on his social media site: “Now that the Election in Florida is over…shouldn’t it be said that in 2020 I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?”

I’m just asking: Doesn’t Trump know the difference between a presidential election (when a lot more people vote) and a midterm election?

I have no idea who would prevail if these two guys collide in the ’24 primaries. DeSantis is reputedly far more disciplined (he wouldn’t waste time obsessing about Biden winning the ’20 election) and he has a deep roster of donors – but he’s often as charismatic as a wet noodle, and some Americans, dare I suggest, may well be repulsed by his insistence (in a recent campaign ad) that he is an instrument of God.

On the other hand, only one of these guys is the target of multiple state and federal investigations, which raises the delicious prospect of DeSantis squaring off against a criminal defendant. I can already taste the popcorn.