Florida governor Ron DeSantis has released a 30-second teaser clip trailing the imminent launch of his bid to seek the Republican Party presidential nomination.
Posted to Twitter by his wife Casey DeSantis, the short promo sees Mr DeSantis backstage, calmly emerging from behind a pair of curtains and marching towards the Star-and-Stripes, taking a moment to compose himself and button his jacket before stepping out into the spotlight as though about to make a major public address.
The footage is accompanied by a metronomic score reminiscent of Hans Zimmer’s intense compositions for Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies – and by a highly portentous voiceover.
“They call it faith because, in the face of darkness, you can see that brighter future,” the speaker declares.
“A faith that our best days lay ahead of us. But is it worth the fight? Do I have the courage? Is it worth the sacrifice? America has been worth it. Every. Single. Time.”
What has attracted the most attention so far is that the voice, which you might have expected to be Mr DeSantis’ own, instead appears to be that of an unnamed Brit.
“Just saw the DeSantis launch video and am confused by the British accent in the voiceover. Seems out of touch for any political campaign in the US,” wrote one Twitter user in response to historian Michael Benschloss’s generous suggestion that the tone of the clip might be a riff on Apple’s celebrated Macintosh commercial.
“Folks, let’s be fair to DeSantis,” said another. “Maybe his species doesn’t know what a British accent sounds like? It could be new to them – like all other human interaction.”
Another was quick to dub the governor “the Mancunian candidate”, which does not entirely work as the voice in question does not have a Manchester accent but, still, points for trying.
Someone calling himself “Florida Chris” complained about the creeping Britishness by asking: “Did we not fight a war to keep them out of our politics?”
A reply to that suggested the governor was “trying to sound classy, elegant”, something “his own voice could never achieve”.
Casey DeSantis had earlier posted a Fox News article about her husband’s prospective run for the White House with the knowing comment “Big if true…” and her post containing the video was subsequently retweeted by the governor himself, the DeSantis War Room account and by his press secretary Bryan Griffin, who tweeted: “Game on.”
Mr DeSantis is expected to formally commence his campaign on Wednesday evening, joining a Twitter Spaces event with CEO Elon Musk for a discussion in which he is being tipped to at last make the much-trailed announcement, placing himself in direct competition with Donald Trump for the first time.
The former president has already tried to hijack his rival’s big announcement by launching into an insult-packed rant about him on his Truth Social echo chamber, again calling him “disloyal” and declaring that he “desperately needs a personality transplant”.
