From Metallica to coffee to Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ron DeSantis has thoughts

Heading into his final year as Florida Governor with no immediate campaign on the horizon, Ron DeSantis has begun to show a more personal, reflective side to himself on social media.

From new posts on his preferences in music (Metallica), coffee (Dunkin), and sports (Stone Cold Steve Austin), DeSantis in the past 10 months has started to use his personal X account to give his fans a peek behind the curtain into his hobbies — a stark change to his past, sparsely personal use of his account.

Some hope it’s a sign of his next career.

“Governor, can you please start a call-in radio show?” one user asked.

Others are confused at the change:

“What are these tweets? You are the greatest governor of all time, but what is going on with this stream of consciousness. I get it 2028 and Vance is good with speaking from the heart. But you are a sledgehammer that’s good enough. Peace and love,” another wrote.

DeSantis has long enjoyed a distinct popularity in right-wing circles on social media. Many fans name their X accounts after him, use his face as their profile pictures, or even AI-generate images of him to represent themselves. Accounts like “DeSantis Appreciation Society,” “Cryptid Politics” and “Frog Capital” have a combined following of more than 50,000 people, including members of the Governor’s staff.

Despite this, DeSantis has largely built a reticent, insulated reputation. He’s run a more private operation, offering few tidbits about himself and the inner-workings of his administration. And while the political machinations haven’t appeared to change, his online presence has begun to shift into the sunshine.

Molly Best, DeSantis’ Press Secretary, told the Florida Phoenix there is “no underlying reason” for the change in pace “other than his normal interest in tweeting from his personal account.”

On DeSantis’ personal X account, the Phoenix searched from the years 2018 to the present for terms he’s expressed interest in. These includes “baseball,” “golf,” “football,” “Metallica,” “Master of Puppets,” “coffee,” “wrestling,” “Waffle House,” and “AI.”

Here’s what we found:

On music:

In 2025 alone, DeSantis has used his personal account, @RonDeSantis, to post the key word “Metallica” four times; “Nirvana,” twice; and “Master of Puppets,” four times. This compares to zero mentions in the past.

“If you compare the music/bands from the last 30 years (1995-2025) to the previous 30 years (1965-1995) it isn’t even close: From 1965-1995 you have the Beatles/Stones/Zepplin/Hendrix era; Elvis was still in the building; the rise of southern rock including Skynrd; epic country from Johnny Cash to Waylon (Jennings); pop icons like Michael Jackson; mainstream rock bands like U2; metal legends including Metallica/GnR; the start of alternative rock … and so much more. Music from that era has stood — and will continue to stand — the test of time,” one deep-dive DeSantis thought from Aug. 16 reads.

On the same day, he mused, “Epic year — and it signaled the evolution from metal/hair rock towards grunge/alternative rock. I’d take Appetite for Destruction and Master of Puppets if I had to choose between albums from the mid-to-late 80s vs the early 90s.”

Also on Aug. 16, he shared, “November Rain by GnR and One by Metallica are two of my favorite music videos of all time.”

On food and drink:

DeSantis on Monday showed a preference for Dunkin’ Donuts over Starbucks, and black coffee over sugary, cream-filled lattes. He posted three times about coffee on his personal account, compared to once in 2018.

“Demand for coffee in America = inelastic,” he wrote. “People will pony up before changing their habits when it comes to that cup of Joe.”

On food, he revealed three times this year that he likes Waffle House (and prefers it to Cracker Barrel). “We haven’t been in a few months — the last time we tried there was a line of (hungover?) college students and it’s hard to wait long with three young kids so we bailed,” he wrote.

He had not posted anything about Waffle House on his personal account before this year.

On sports:

Sports are one of the Governor’s most prevalent interests on social media and in press conferences. From football to baseball to golf to wrestling, he likes it all.

This year, he posted with the key word “baseball” 10 times — nine of which were in October. This compares to just one post in 2024 and two in 2018.

Many of these posts center on a perceived growing uninterest in the sport, which DeSantis played at Yale University. A star player and captain of the team, the now-47-year-old posted various analyses about why the sport may have fallen by the wayside, including a 1994 MLB strike and a slower drafting process.

“Golf” made it into 11 posts this year, 10 of them in September, compared to just two in 2024. Many weighed the Governor’s favorite golf courses. DeSantis is prolific golfer, and has posted video of his young son golfing. DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis met at a University of North Florida golf course in 2006.

Wrestling, meanwhile, earned three mentions compared to zero in previous years, while “Stone Cold Steve Austin” had two.

“Maybe Stone Cold Steve Austin can be the referee and then drop a stunner on Tampon Tim at the opportune time,” he posted in March. The reference is to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Football also saw spikes in interest from DeSantis in 2025, along with “championship,” “undefeated,” and “ranked.”

Not all of his new subject areas are apolitical, however. This year alone, he’s used his personal account to deride artificial intelligence 13 times. He hadn’t mentioned it before then.

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Reporting by Livia Caputo. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: [email protected].