A.G. Gancarski
President Donald Trump has stayed out of the immigration fight in Tallahassee, but a read of the tea leaves shows he and his political operation are paying avid attention — and not throwing America’s Governor a lifeline in the second week of the drama between the executive and legislative branches.
For starters, Trump is taking credit for the state’s political operation, omitting the name of Gov. Ron DeSantis as he hails Hillsborough County’s flip to the GOP and endorses two congressional candidates, including one who is Public Enemy No. 1 in the Executive Office of the Governor.
“Another very big and successful week of WINS for Republicans in the Great State of Florida! Florida’s third largest County, Hillsborough, has FLIPPED RED to a Republican Majority in Voter Registration, and Republicans now lead in a total of 58 out of 67 Counties across the State. ‘TRUMP’ went 2-0 in Special Election Endorsements, with BIG WINS by our next Members of Congress, Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine. Both Jimmy and Randy again have my Complete and Total Endorsement in the upcoming General Election on April 1, which they will win in a Landslide,” Trump posted to social media Monday.
The President also invited selected Florida Republicans to the White House celebration of the NHL Panthers, including Sen. Rick Scott, House Speaker Daniel Perez, Sens. Fine and Joe Gruters, Rep. Juan Porras. He excluded DeSantis, who was in Tallahassee holding a press conference on budget proposals that were explained well enough in writing.
While that guest list may have just been a coincidence (sources in the White House are mum at this writing), the hockey huzzahs came amid happy talk about negotiations on the immigration bill from the Governor.
“We’ve had great discussions. I think we’re going to land the plane. So I don’t necessarily have an announcement now, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to get there,” DeSantis told reporters Monday in Tallahassee.
DeSantis previously balked at how the TRUMP Act “takes away the Governor’s authority … takes power away from me,” while Perez said DeSantis wants to be “deporter-in-chief.”
If a detente was on hand, though, DeSantis-friendly gabber Dana Loesch didn’t get the memo She roughed up Fine during a heated segment Monday on the “Dana Show.”
Fine claimed “DeSantis wanted someone down in the Deep State to be immigration officer” rather than Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, as the TRUMP Act would compel. But Loesch had the prerogative of framing, asking prosecutorial questions that paralleled a Substack slam of “weak” Republicans and “RINOs” seeking to “lame duck” the heroic DeSantis.
Some Republicans in the DeSantis camp have yearned for Trump to weigh in on the side of the Governor. But the President’s silence is telling and indicative that the Governor who has steamrolled the legislative branch for half a dozen years may have to do his own heavy lifting to kill an act named after the President he ran against in a Primary a little more than a year ago.
