As he trekked to the nation’s capital to demonstrate strength with the Washington establishment on Tuesday — and before he even set foot in the district — several members of his state’s congressional delegation announced support instead for former President Donald Trump’s White House comeback bid.

It was the latest indication of the early shine dulling on a candidate initially heralded by Republicans who don’t want Trump to be their party’s 2024 nominee — and more proof of Trump’s indictment bolstering his standing in the GOP field.

Reports from the New York Times, NBC News, USA Today, and CNN struck similar themes: If the Florida governor came to Washington hunting patronage, he failed to bag anywhere near his limit. From CNN:

But now, on the precipice of a 2024 presidential campaign, DeSantis’ lack of inroads there [is] sending troubling signals to political supporters. Hours ahead of his meeting with congressional Republicans, Florida Rep. John Rutherford endorsed Trump, making him the sixth House Republican to back the former president over their home state governor. Additionally, Florida Rep. Brian Mast told CNN ahead of the meet-and-greet that he planned to back Trump.

Look, lots of things happen in April that won’t mean much beyond May. Snow, fast (or slow) starts by Major League Baseball teams, income tax refunds, chocolate bunnies, polls.

This April’s endorsements belong in the same category. They’re the tulips of the political blooming calendar: lovely to the beholder, but every bit as ephemeral. If the early endorsements from members of Congress meant as much as members of Congress wish they did, Jeb Bush would be halfway through his second term in the White House. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

Still, with DeSantis as a persuasive champion for causes social and economic that are anathema to the the left and its media allies, we understand attempts to bury him early. It may turn out they are armed with naught but garden trowels.

As an unofficial candidate — stay tuned, he says, coyly — DeSantis walks a delicate line. His overtures must not be overt. However, if, as noted in the breathless reports above, DeSantis hit Washington expecting to collect a haul of co-sponsors for a candidacy he hasn’t even declared, he’s not the lawyer his record indicates. Because no lawyer worth his license asks a question in open court to which he doesn’t already know the answer.

We don’t think DeSantis, who earned a Bronze Star for meritorious service as in-theater senior counsel to U.S. Navy SEALS in Iraq, is a rat-a-tat-first, aim-later sort of lawyer (although the ongoing dispute with Disney tests our theory). Indeed, he is marketed as the reassuring antidote to precisely that sort of hair-trigger governing favored by the most recent Republican president.

Appreciate the DeSantis field trip to the nation’s capital for what its billing, a two-day mixer visiting parties with whom the governor shares policy interests. Team-joining can wait. 

DeSantis as the presumed a tack-toward-normality candidate comes at a time when a certain substantial portion of the GOP electorate remains committed to Trump’s devotion to avenging old grievances, real and imagined. We commend their attention to a Public Opinion Strategies indicating Pennsylvania and Arizona — pivotal states that rejected Trump and Republicans in 2020 (and Trump proxies in 2022) — would swing the GOP’s way with DeSantis at the top of the ticket.

Naturally, the Trump campaign responded with the reassuring calm that is its brand.

All of which is to reiterate the obvious: It’s way early folks. Let’s see how summertime — when we shall know, officially, the intentions of America’s Governor — shakes out.