'America’s punchline' is now 'the ideological wellspring' for Trump’s administration: analysis
Florida once had a reputation for being a volatile swing state that, like Pennsylvania, could make or break a presidential candidate.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ended a vote recount in Florida in the 2000 presidential race, then-Vice President Al Gore gave a concession speech and congratulated Republican George W. Bush on being president-elect. Bush won Florida twice, but so did Democratic former President Barack Obama.
But Florida has since taken a very Republican turn. Far-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was reelected by 19 percent in 2022, and President-elect Donald Trump carried the Sunshine State by 13 percent in 2024.
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Pennsylvania was close in 2024, with Trump narrowly defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the Keystone State. Florida wasn't close at all.
In an article published on November 28, Politico's David Kihara stresses Florida has become the epicenter of Trump's MAGA movement and will play a prominent role in his incoming second administration.
"Florida is America's punchline, a state that exports as many memes as it does oranges," Kihara explains. "It's prone to hurricanes and presidential hopefuls — at least six in the last 50 years — and now will be Donald Trump's power center and the ideological wellspring for his administration."
Kihara lists some of the Florida residents who could be a part of that administration — a group that, if they are confirmed, could include Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state, Rep. Mike Waltz as national security adviser, and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general.
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Before Trump nominated Bondi, he had another Floridian in mind for that position: Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida). But Gaetz withdrew from consideration.
Trump himself is a Florida resident, living on his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
"If anything, Florida is a place of contradictions," Kihara explains. "It's economically lax and also morally overbearing, freewheeling and uptight. It's home to two cities — Miami and Orlando — that, according to the Census Bureau, have some of the highest concentrations in the U.S. of gay-coupled households. But at the same time, the state restricts how teachers, even up to high school, can teach LGBTQ+ issues."
According to Kihara, Trump's second administration could make Florida's agenda a national U.S. agenda.
"And now, the rest of America could become a little more like Florida," Kihara observes. "Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon, is a vaccine safety skeptic; Rubio is a traditional hawk with a from-the-cradle hatred of communism but a desire to negotiate a quick end to the Ukraine war; Bondi wants to go after 'bad prosecutors' much like DeSantis did with two state attorneys. They have the potential to being much more than Florida vibes to the country and could reshape the country in the image of the Sunshine State."
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Read Politico's full article at this link.
