Ron DeSantis is being trolled on social media after his attempt to launch his presidential campaign via a Twitter live stream crashed and was delayed on Wednesday, as thousands of users logged on to hear him announce his bid for the White House. The launch was scheduled to take place at 6 pm with Elon Musk as the host of the event.
However, Twitter's servers frequently collapsed from the very beginning of the event as it couldn't handle the volume of traffic. The Florida governor tried to make light of the disastrous Twitter launch in a follow-up video by dismissing the chaotic beginning by saying that he "broke the internet."
Major Face Loss
DeSantis' idea of announcing his presidential bid for 2024 was well planned in advance and could have been a monumental occasion for Twitter.
For the first time, a presidential candidate would use the site's premier audio feature to announce his run for the White House. And he would say so in a personal conversation with the new CEO Elon Musk.
However, everything started but nothing went according to plan.
The Twitter Spaces with DeSantis were cut short after only a few minutes due to technical glitches as more than 600,000 people tuned in. Users were leaving the site, including DeSantis.
Musk was franticly trying to steer the discourse in the right direction when his own website was thwarted.
"We've got so many people here that we are kind of melting the servers," tech entrepreneur David Sacks, the moderator the event, said at one point.
"We've got just a massive number of people online," Musk said. "So the servers are straining somewhat."
The event crashed numerous times as the audience grew to more than 250,000 people waiting to hear the conversation. About 20 minutes after it was slated to begin and before DeSantis himself had an opportunity to speak, the Spaces closed as officials worked to make repairs.
That was around 6:30 pm, 30 minutes after the event was actually scheduled to start.
Around 10 minutes later, they resumed with Musk noting it was good not to have "canned speeches and teleprompters - it's real" and Sacks applauding DeSantis on "breaking the internet."
DeSantis Trolled
Mockery erupted across social media, with DeSantis and Musk becoming a victim of endless trolls. "Who here thinks #DeSantis would have been better off launching on Disney streaming? #Fail," one user tweeted, referencing DeSantis's bruising battle with the entertainment company.
A meme compared DeSantis to the witch from The Wizard of Oz who was crushed by the house while famously sporting white rain boots in October while surveying hurricane damage.
Mickey Mouse was portrayed hunched over next to the home, his white rain boots sticking out from beneath.
"Biggest fail in campaign launches in history," another frustrated user tweeted.
"Nice one DeSantis. Brought to you by Elon L Musk."
A meme depicting an engineer gazing at a server was posted by someone with the message, "Elon right now."
Another person mocked the event's name by posting a picture of a rocket exploding: "Presidential Launch."
"Ron DeSantis learning what happens when you launch things with Elon Musk," he captioned the image.
Others expressed their shock that the demand had not been predicted and that more server bandwidth had not been reserved.
''It is having issues," said one.
"DeSantis 2024: Technical issues," joked another user.
After the Twitter event, DeSantis released a follow-up video clip in which he dismissed the disastrous start, claiming that he had "broken the internet." DeSantis did not grin despite the delivery being a joke and seemed to poke fun of the glitchy announcement.
"What can we break next," the tweet that contained the video clip asked.
Musk said that the Twitter turmoil was evidence that their encounter was genuine and live, and DeSantis laughed it off.
The Florida governor then made light of the mishap on Fox News.
He admitted to host Trey Gowdy that "it did break the Twitter space."
According to DeSantis' campaign, $1 million was raised in just one hour as a result of the Twitter show.
However, the mockery persisted unabatedly, guaranteeing that DeSantis's much-publicized debut will be remembered for the wrong reasons.
The trolling didn't stop there. US President Joe Biden's official Twitter account used the opportunity to ask for donations for his reelection campaign. Biden tweeted a URL leading to his donation page with the words, "This link works."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also made fun of DeSantis in response to businessman David Sacks' assertion that the original audience for DeSantis' Twitter chat broke the internet.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, "We had more people join when I played Among Us," referring to the title of a video game.
One of DeSantis' main rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, former US President Donald Trump, also attacked the Florida governor.
"Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster," Trump wrote on Truth, his social media platform. "WATCH!"
