OUT ON A LIMB: Ron DeSantis models presidential behavior.

Enter Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who announced on October 12 that he would be deploying flights from the Florida, at no expense to Americans trapped overseas. The first flight touched down last night in Florida, with DeSantis in attendance and waiting for the evacuees — 270 Americans, 91 of them children — on the tarmac. The optics were a coup for DeSantis, while Trump shouted all caps away on Truth Social, and Biden slurred his way through a coordinated 60 Minutes interview, where, as his usual aged and aloof self, he, once again, did not address American casualties.

DeSantis stepped up, unquestionably, and took command of getting Americans home. He did so in a way that even had a media that’s usually hostile to him reporting on it. NBC News reporter Dasha Burns was on the scene in Tampa. The optics of the situation is that DeSantis is present and focused, while the two geriatric frontrunners were pre-occupied — either with Ticketmaster junk fees and telling more personal embellishments about gays getting thrown out of restaurants, or back in a courtroom and unloading on international allies at rallies.

Or to put it another way: Adam Kinzinger on DeSantis Airlift: ‘You Can’t Do That!’ DeSantis: ‘Hold My Beer.’