Van Jones advises DeSantis to go after Trump’s looks, family

Political strategist and commentator Van Jones says Ron DeSantis “is not prepared” for his looming GOP White House primary fight against former President Trump, advising the Florida governor, who has not yet declared his candidacy, to go low.

A pro-DeSantis group aired its first TV ad earlier this week, bashing Trump for targeting DeSantis on his past positions on Medicare and Social Security and turning the attack back around on the former president.

That won’t work, said Jones, a CNN political analyst, in an advance clip from Comedy Central’s “Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News,” shared exclusively with The Hill on Wednesday.

“The problem they have with someone like DeSantis is he doesn’t know how to fight,” Jones told the animated hosts of the show. “If he thinks he is going to be able to beat Donald Trump by splitting hairs about Social Security policy, he hasn’t watched Donald Trump.”

Trump has regularly gotten down in the mud when attacking his opponents, including sharing a social media post that accused DeSantis of partying with underage girls when he was a high school teacher. The TV ad from the pro-DeSantis group followed one on the Florida governor from a pro-Trump organization making fun of a story that circulated about DeSantis eating pudding with his fingers while also attacking his policies.

Jones said that instead, DeSantis should take the fight to Trump in more personal terms.

“You go after Donald Trump by going after things he really cares about. He’s a vain man,” he said. “You talk about his looks, you talk about his hair, you talk about his family, you do stuff that’s gonna throw him off his game.”

“Unfortunately, that is not in the Ron DeSantis playbook,” he added. “He is not prepared for this fight, and it’s obvious.”

The animated hosts of the show then go on to play the pro-Trump ad that mocked the pudding story about DeSantis, putting the pro-DeSantis ad in the corner of the screen before getting rid of it altogether.

The full episode is set to air tonight at 11:30.