Ron DeSantis quoted Budweiser in his closing speech thinking it was Churchill

Ron DeSantis signed off his presidential run in fittingly strange fashion over the weekend… by quoting a Budweiser advert thinking it was Winston Churchill.

DeSantis announced the news he was dropping out on social media before endorsing Donald Trump, writing: “We don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign. I’m proud to have delivered on 100 per cent of my promises. I will not stop now.”

The Florida governor went on to say: “I’ve had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the Coronavirus pandemic, and his elevation of Anthony Fauci. Trump is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden.”

“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honour that pledge,” he continued. “He has my endorsement because we can't go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, or a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

However, he then followed it up by adding what he thought was a Churchill quote, but which turned out to be text from a Budweiser ad launched in the 1930s.

Somehow, it feels appropriate given how his campaign was first launched in a chaotic Twitter spaces event with Elon Musk last May.

Posting on X, he wrote "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts," and attributed the quote to Churchill.

It's a good quote, but according to The International Churchill Society, Churchill didn’t actually say those words.

In fact, copy from the 30s Budweiser ad reads: "Men with the spirit of youth pioneered our America... men with vision and sturdy confidence. They found contentment in the thrill of action, knowing that success was never final and failure never fatal. It was courage that counted. Isn't opportunity in America today greater than it was in the days of our grateful forefathers?"

DeSantis was previously critical of Bud Light on the campaign trail, even claiming he was considering legal action against Bud Light’s parent company in the wake of a clip posted by the transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney last summer.

In a letter to a state agency that manages retirement accounts for state workers, Florida’s governor suggested that InBev “breached legal duties to its shareholders” by associating with “radical social ideologies”.

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