About

Ron DeSantis "I Will Not Let You Down" refers to a viral video of Florida Governor and Republican Presidential Candidate Ron DeSantis saying at the first Republican debate, "I will not let you down," before slowly starting to smile. The clip was widely mocked on social media with a variety of captions, as many felt the smile was forced and seemed pained. As it spread following the debate in late August 2023, it also saw use in various memes and jokes online for its perceived awkwardness.

Origin

On August 23rd, 2023, at the first Republican Presidential Debate hosted on Fox News, Ron DeSantis told the crowd, "We will get the job done and I will not let you down" before appearing to try and give a confident grin at the end of his segment. The moment was captured by Twitter user @brenonade, who captioned the clip, "love smiling like a human," gaining over 1,200 retweets and 6,300 likes in one day (shown below).

Spread

The clip spread widely on social media on August 23rd, 2023, after it was reposted by Twitter user @KeithEdwards^[1] 20 minutes later with the caption, "This man is in PAIN!" (shown below).

Over August 23rd and 24th, many Twitter users cracked jokes about the clip, often implying that DeSantis was not happy or did not believe in his own statements.

For example, on August 24th, the band Eve 6^[2] tweeted that DeSantis "hated" his life with the clip, gaining over 970 retweets and 16,000 likes in less than one day (shown below, left). Twitter user @Dougboneparth^[3] posted the clip and joked, "Me right before I let everyone down," gaining over 670 retweets and 5,700 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References