Governor of Florida Ron DeSanti’s gross stunt of flying desperate immigrants to California and dumping them on the doorstep of a Catholic diocese headquarters showed us one thing: he’s not fit to be president of America.

It is not because of his sensitive views that we should gain more control over our southern border. Any rational person would agree that the border is too porous.

Members of Congress are trapped in their political silos and can’t muster the courage to go out and compromise on substantial immigration reform. Both sides are exploiting the issue to stir up their political base.

What makes DeSantis unsuitable for the Oval Office is how he cavalierly treated hapless people like political pawns in a crass, ruthless effort to bolster his flag campaign for the Republican presidential nomination while playing gotcha with California’s Democratic governor. Gavin Newsom.

Really, we want a commander

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in

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chief who plays petty, reckless games with our opponents? For example, a president who buzzes a Chinese warship in revenge for a Chinese destroyer slashing the bow of a US Navy ship?

Hasty, stubborn, impetuous presidents can wreak all sorts of havoc, including war.

So do we want a president who treats the most vulnerable among us like political chess pieces? Who wastes taxpayer money to swindle a nagging critic like Newsom?

That said, the governor of California has also shown no statesmanlike qualities in recent months by going to DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other red state leaders.

Instead of focusing full-time on California’s problems, he was chosen to solve homelessness, unaffordable housing and possible wildfires. Newsom has sporadically and loudly criticized other states’ conservative policies.

The consensus of political pundits is that Newsom is trying to position himself to be president, if not next year, in 2028. He denies it and I believe him. But he clearly wants to be a national torchbearer for progressive causes.

If that’s his priority, then next year he should run for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Senator Dianne Feinstein. Meanwhile, to prove his effectiveness as a leader, he would have to devote more time to the public affairs assigned to him.

Newsom’s latest attention grabber last week was to announce that he will lead an effort to amend the US Constitution with a specific set of gun controls. It has no chance of being accepted.

But it’s a fun nationwide talking point for Democratic voters and a lucrative fundraising tool for his new federal political action committee: the Campaign for Democracy. In fact, his PAC immediately began using the proposed constitutional amendment to solicit donations.

Don’t get me wrong, Newsom has every right to attack DeSantis for tampering with California airspace and offloading 36 undocumented immigrants into the state capital, Sacramento.

Kidnapping charges? Newsom reflected in a tweet in which he called Florida’s governor a short, pathetic man.

California Atty. General Rob Bonta last week all but ruled out indicting DeSantis or anyone else for kidnapping.

Kidnapping requires violence or fear, Bonta told me. We didn’t see that at the moment. .. I see deceit, misrepresentation, broken promises. Basically read.

And lying to move individuals hundreds of miles west is cheating. … It could be the basis for civil or criminal liability with imprisonment of one year or more.

For whom? It could be anyone from the governor [down]Bonta said.

She [immigrants] were brutally treated by an official state action. Those I spoke to were told that if they got on the plane they would get a job and help with food and shelter. It was never intended to do such a thing. … That’s not how you treat people.

DeSantis, after initially keeping quiet about his involvement, eventually tied up and defended the action. He argued that California deserves the immigrants because it is a so-called haven state that limits local law enforcement involvement in federal efforts to deport people living here illegally.

The border should be closed, DeSantis said. But if there is a policy to have an open border then I think the sanctuary jurisdictions should be the ones to bear that in mind.

As president, would he use jumbo military troop transports to fly thousands of undocumented immigrants from the Texas border to California?

As governor, DeSantis got the Florida Legislature to authorize $22 million in tax dollars to fly immigrants from red states to blue states. The immigrants on their way to California were picked up in El Paso

Texas

. They weren’t even in Florida and had nothing to do with Sunshine States.

Does this help DeSantis politically? Especially during the March 5 presidential primaries in California, where the largest bloc of the Republican convention fielded 169 delegates

is

at stake?

If he starts running as a culture warrior, he’ll get cheap applause along the way, says Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican adviser and co-director of the Center for the Political Future at USC. But it hurts him in a national election if he were to win the GOP nomination.

However, the key to winning the California primary is to gain momentum by beating former President Trump first in either Iowa or New Hampshire, Murphy says. Well, follow the leader.

Early independent polls show that Trump is well ahead of DeSantis among Republican voters in California.

A survey released last week by the Public Policy Institute of California also found that 63% of likely voters believe immigrants are more of an asset than a burden. But Republicans are the outliers. 74% of them see immigrants as a burden.

DeSantis is playing to the worst instincts, says GOP adviser Mike Madrid. It’s all theatre. The dwindling number of Republicans in California will cheer him up. And Florida Democrats want to cheer on Gavin Newsom.

It’s smart politics and bad governance.

And not worthy of a potential president.