Donald Trump is a proud Floridian. So is his chief of staff, Susie Wiles. As well as his nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Along with his nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz. And don’t forget Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), who’ll serve as Trump’s national security advisor.
And that’s not all: Floridians James Blair and Taylor Budowich will be moving to D.C. too.
(Florida’s other senator, Rick Scott, was nearly named Senate Majority Leader, but he came in third, losing to Sen. John Coryn and Sen. John Thune.)
Florida, Florida, Florida! All the White House needs are some orange trees and a few pink flamingoes, and it could double as the Sunshine State.
Notably absent from the West Wing’s Florida delegation is sitting governor Ron DeSantis, who’ll be looking for a new line of work in 2026. (Florida limits governors to two terms.) Had he not angered MAGA Nation by challenging Trump for the presidential nomination, Gov. DeSantis could’ve easily been added to the list.
Of course, now that Susie Wiles is firmly in charge of the West Wing, it seems unlikely DeSantis would ever be a welcome addition to a Trump administration.
Still, even without DeSantis, that’s an awful lot of Florida-based talent coming to the capital. The Sunshine State is overrepresented. But there’s a method to Trump’s Florida fixation:
Florida is the canary in the coal mine for political trends.
Back in the early 2000s, Florida was the ultimate swing state. On the wings of angels (and with a little bit of help from a semi-dangling chad), whoever won Florida would win the presidential election — culminating in 2000 with the never-ending ballot battles between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
Ever since then, Florida has been a decade or so ahead of national trends: Hispanics and Latino voters began breaking for GOP candidates in Florida first. Out of demographic necessity, the state Republican Party went from lily-white to multiethnic. And their outreach worked: Florida Republicans learned how to communicate with Spanish-speaking immigrants, day laborers, and hard-working minorities — who were much more concerned with skyrocketing inflation and the rise in violent crime than being lectured by liberals on which pronoun to use.
These minority voters became charter members of our new Republican bloc.
The United States of America has countless advantages over other countries and regions. From our vast natural resources to a pair of oceans shielding us from our enemies, there’s no nation on earth with more God-given gifts. And one of our greatest (and most underrated) blessings is the demographics of our immigrants.
In Europe, most of the immigrants are coming from the Middle East. Not only is there a language barrier, but the immigrants tend to be culturally disconnected from the rest of the country: different religion, different culture, different set of values. It makes assimilation far more challenging — because these immigrants also arrived with their hatreds, bigotry, misogyny, and intolerance.
Most Muslim immigrants in France, for example, believe Jews have too much power and are exploiting the Holocaust to advance their own interests. And the rising rates of antisemitism in other European countries is even worse. Holland recently had a “Jew hunt” at their soccer game.
But in America, assimilation is significantly easier. Yes, there’s still a language barrier, but there’s usually a common religion, common values, a common work ethic, and overlapping morality. In fact, values-driven issues — like abortion — are a big reason why Florida’s immigrants began voting Republican.
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Economic issues still matter greatly, but for Florida’s immigrants, it’s not just a question of voting for their wallet: They also tend to be overtly hostile to communism and socialism because they’ve witnessed the damage it's done to their former homeland. They’re people who live, work, and think like conservatives but until the past few years or so, they voted like liberals.
Not anymore. Without their steadfast, loyal support, Ron DeSantis wouldn’t have won reelection in 2022 with nearly 60% of the popular vote.
And now the rest of the nation is catching up to Florida: In 2016, roughly 87% of Trump’s voters were white. But in 2024, nearly one in five Trump voters were black, Latino, Native American, or “people of color.”
This ain’t your Daddy’s Republican Party!
The United States is in the process of a radical realignment. Before, there were social pressures and cultural impediments that prevented blacks, Latinos, and other minorities from joining the GOP en masse without suffering blowback. But after 2024, that wall has broken.
And now, the floodgates are wide open: The Republican Party has been transformed into the party of the working man. Sunny days are just around the corner.
Flooding and sunshine? Sure sounds like Florida to me!
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