MFA, emphasis mine:

Unlike Trump's 2016 opponents, who cycled through a series of unsuccessful attacks, DeSantis has also clearly prepared a winning contrast over Trump's support for COVID-19 vaccines. Anti-vaccine sentiment has exploded on the right, and DeSantis has seized its leadership. "I think the blood-in-the-water knockout blow is the vaccines," former conservative radio host John Ziegler told Matthew Lewis, "because Trump is so deluded into believing that the vaccines--because he wants to take credit for them--were the greatest thing ever. That's where, with way more than 50 percent of the Republican base, DeSantis can strike a knockout blow."

It is obviously perverse that Trump's most impressive, life-saving accomplishment in office would be his biggest political vulnerability. But this is the reality of the party, which DeSantis has clearly grasped.

And the confusion over his intention may reflect the fact that Trump's moderate critics have lost touch with the thinking of the base. They see Trump as a terrible person with dangerous authoritarian tendencies who nevertheless had positive accomplishments. DeSantis grasps that Trump's character and authoritarianism are his greatest strengths within the party. He has mimicked Trump's bullying, mockery, and disdain for democratic norms.