Congress
Trump is loading his administration up with Floridians. Is Washington ready?
Donald Trump adopted Florida as his home state. Now his second administration will look to transform the country in its image.
His new administration is loaded with politicians and operatives who cut their teeth in the Sunshine State — from incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles; to Marco Rubio, the likely next secretary of State; and Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general Trump tapped to lead the Justice Department after the first Floridian he picked, Matt Gaetz, withdrew.
Trump filling his team with Floridians — with Mar-a-Lago serving as his home base — shows how his second term will be different than the first: one that values loyalty above all else, casting aside the need to win over different wings of a Republican Party. And it could be an even more pugnacious administration, filled with people who learned how to throw elbows in Florida first.
“Sure, they’re close to home, but Trump has known all of these people for years and they have gained his trust,” Blue Light News reporter Meridith McGraw said. “For Trump, trust and loyalty are everything.”
It will all amount to a huge political — and culture — shock to Washington, when Trump and his team come crashing back into town in less than two months.
To get a sense of what’s next, Blue Light News convened four reporters who have covered Trump’s political orbit, both in Florida and in Washington.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Trump has just absolutely loaded his administration up with Floridians. Is this about literal proximity to his base of operations or something more?
McGraw: First of all, let’s just go through the list of Floridians Trump has tapped so far for top roles in his next administration: Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Mike Waltz, Susie Wiles, and Pam Bondi. Am I missing anyone, Gary?
Sure, they’re close to home, but Trump has known all of these people for years and they have gained his trust. For Trump, trust and loyalty are everything. I was talking to a friend of Trump and Bondi’s last night, and they said the president-elect wants to be able to call up his Cabinet at any time for advice (much like he does with allies now) and so having a comfortable relationship is important.
Gary Fineout: There are others who have helped out Trump who also have a Florida connection such as James Blair, who was named deputy chief of staff. And Bondi has known Trump — and stood by Trump — for a while now. Early on she backed Jeb Bush, but after he left that race in 2016 she endorsed Trump quickly. She has never wavered and never supported, say, Ron DeSantis for president.
But to me the real point here is that Florida is now ground zero for Republicans in the U.S. The counter balance to California.
McGraw: Not Texas! That’s a conversation for another day, but it really feels like the real GOP center of gravity is in Florida not Texas these days.
Fineout: Well the president hasn’t been living in Texas.
What does the Florida takeover of the GOP — and soon Washington — mean? Is it just personnel or are we getting a different style of politics altogether?
Kimberly Leonard: It’s both. Wiles is a longtime Florida operative who has repeatedly recruited, coached and mentored people throughout their careers. So it makes sense that — as incoming chief of staff — she would continue turning to those longstanding relationships to build a team.
Culturally, Florida is very different from most of the U.S. It’s more out there, less risk averse. The news always seems replete with wild stories pouring out of our amazing state. Though Trump is obviously originally a creature of New York, he’s been snowbirding here a while, and in many ways he seems to fit the definition of the quintessential Florida Man.
Mia McCarthy: These Floridians are more likely to break the status quo when it comes to old school politics. And again, they’re loyal to Trump — I’d expect them to help the president carry out whatever priorities he has, even if it is against the political norm.
McGraw: I think Kimberly’s spot on — Susie Wiles’ influence is all over some of these picks. Wiles has gained a loyal following of operatives and politicians in Florida who have worked for her or worked with her.
It feels like this will be a bigger shift than Washington is prepared for, because Florida’s power is different in Congress, right?
McCarthy: Totally. What is somewhat ironic to me is that Florida has failed to hold onto power in Washington otherwise until this point. In Congress, they don’t have any major gavels or top leadership positions. That’s pretty weird for the second-largest Republican House delegation. (20 members!)
There have been unsuccessful attempts to rise in Congress — Rick Scott, a close ally of Trump, just ran to be Senate leader but was voted out in the first round the same day that Rep. Kat Cammack lost a bid for one of the top Republican positions in the House.
But also, a lot of Floridians have had their eyes elsewhere. Many Florida Republicans are hoping for a Trump admin job or Florida governor’s mansion, rather than working through the ranks of Congress.
Leonard: Trump has been president before, so they somewhat know what they’re in for, but this time he does seem to be — to borrow a phrase — “unburdened by what has been.”
Some of the folks he’s picking to fill his administration are going to be hard to confirm, and they’re far from the more traditional wing of the party. A couple even used to be Democrats.
We definitely saw with the Matt Gaetz pullout that the Senate at least is going to wield its power at times. There are also institutional systems and special interests in Washington that aren’t just going to stand by and let major overhauls happen to their areas, such as health care.
There’s one very important Floridian we’ve barely mentioned: Ron DeSantis. He ran against Trump and things got … chippy. Has he repaired that relationship?
Fineout: DeSantis ran against Trump and then quickly endorsed him after he got out of the race. And while he did raise money for the president, he did not really do any campaign events for him and instead he put his effort into defeating two amendments on the ballot in Florida.
There still appears to be a bit of distance between the two — and of course Wiles had a very public falling out with DeSantis, and there has been nothing to suggest it’s been patched up. It’s been interesting, however, to see Trump campaign and advocate for policies that are similar to ones that have already been tried in Florida. But for right now it appears DeSantis is going to remain a bit on the outside.
McGraw: I was interested to learn back in early September that Trump and DeSantis played golf together — oh to be a fly on that golf cart! The relationship between the two is not openly hostile as it once was, but I do think that whoever DeSantis picks to replace Rubio will send a message about how aligned he wants to be with Trump.
Leonard: Donors I talk to are split on what they think DeSantis needs to do moving forward. Some say they think he has enough cachet on his own to assert the DeSantis vision for Florida and for shaping the Republican Party, given that he did just defeat amendments on pot and abortion rights that otherwise tended to be broadly popular.
Others tell me they think he should play especially nice with Trump and try to extend an olive branch wherever possible. A clear opportunity to do so might be with appointing a Trump loyalist to Rubio’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.
But does DeSantis really need to do that to guarantee his spot in the party? After all, he did rise to fame in the party when Trump was out of office. He does seem to have a pulse on the electorate, he’s still young and he still has two years left as governor to make a splash.
The Cabinet is mostly filled, but there’s still thousands of other positions across the administration. Any more names you hear might also be making the trip north?
McCarthy: Many see Florida as the GOP powerhouse Republicans want to take nationally. Can’t tell you how many Florida Republicans said “Make America Florida” to me in the past year. I think this is just the start.
Fineout: There are several others who I would keep an eye on, whether it’s long-time Wiles ally and sometimes DeSantis opponent state Sen. Joe Gruters — or heck even, say, Chris Kise, a former solicitor general in Florida who was part of Trump’s legal team.
I have also wondered about Carlos Muñiz. He’s currently on the Florida Supreme Court but he worked in the first Trump administration for Betsy DeVos.
Leonard: I’ve been likening our state to a staffing agency. It has a deep bench of Republicans who are eager to go to Washington to be a part of the MAGA movement. Readers can probably put together a great Bingo card on the list we assembled before.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team announced they are eyeing punishment for two House Democrats who bucked their party Tuesday.
Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Jared Golden of Maine broke with leadership to advance a key procedural vote that revived Republicans’ legislative agenda. The incredibly rare crossing of party lines incensed many House Democrats and top leaders who were then forced to vote on a slate of GOP priorities.
“The decision by two of our colleagues to blindside the entire House Democratic Caucus and join with the Republican majority to pass a procedural rule on the brink of failing represents a significant breach of trust,” Jeffries said in a statement with Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California. “It is an action that necessitates a serious response, and we have asked the Committee on Caucus Rules to take this up in short order.”
Spokespeople for Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Golden told reporters Tuesday he backed the measure because it provided for passage of a bill he cosponsored benefiting lobstermen in his home state while delaying the implementation of fishing regulations meant to protect the North Atlantic right whale population.
House leadership has a number of disciplinary levers at their disposal, including stripping members of committees. When Blue Light News asked Jeffries Tuesday evening if he was considering consequences for the two rogue members, he said, “We haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out.”
Eight House Democrats defected Tuesday over a measure condemning socialism and calling for an election security crackdown — the latest example of the ongoing intraparty tensions around the rise of far-left progressives.
The Democrats voted with every House Republican on the resolution their leaders opposed on grounds it endorsed enactment of the SAVE America Act, President Donald Trump’s biggest legislative priority that would implement onerous voter identification laws.
Ahead of the vote, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York issued a statement calling the resolution a “MAGA effort to rig the midterm elections.”
The message didn’t resonate with the following Democratic Reps., many of whom consider themselves moderates and are fighting tough reelection campaigns:
Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, alongside Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar of Texas and Kathy Castor and Darren Soto of Florida.
Reps. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania voted “present.”
“I don’t agree with socialism and I don’t have a major problem with voter ID,” Gonzalez told reporters after the vote.
“Socialism. I don’t know. I’m from the 80s. Socialism is not a good word for us, right?” he added. “And it just never worked. And I think that most Americans don’t agree with some of those proposals.”
Other centrist Democrats opposed the measure, including Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who railed against the provision expressing support for the SAVE America Act.
Joined by fellow moderate Democratic Reps. Hillary Scholten of Michigan, Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Tom Suozzi of New York, Gottheimer sought consideration of an amendment that would have stripped out the elections bill provision — suggesting they would have been willing to condemn socialism without it.
“If you really look at it, it’s just the SAVE Act with a wrapper on it,” Gottheimer told reporters Monday. “They’re just running the SAVE Act again, which we’ve already — that’s asked and answered. We’ve been through this play. They’re not actually interested in getting people on the record on whether socialists are part of the Democratic Party.”
The amendment was not approved to receive a vote on the House floor.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misspelled a Democratic representative’s name.
The House moved Tuesday to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards for sexually harassing young female staffers in his office.
The 413-2 vote was an overwhelming rebuke to the North Carolina Republican, who chose last month to forgo reelection following the release of a damning House Ethics Committee report detailing his pattern of misconduct.
It also comes as Congress is grappling with how to protect aides from members’ bad behavior amid a rash of harassment and assault allegations against lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
In Edwards’ case, the Ethics Committee found the lawmaker participated in “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers” and made comments on the appearance of his aides, including on one staffer’s weight.
According to the report, Edwards gave the female aides purses, guns, shoes and flowers. Edwards skipped House votes one night to decorate a Christmas tree with a staffer and went drinking and gambling with her. The lawmaker recited a poem at her departure celebration and cried during it, making the staff uncomfortable, the committee said.
“Neither individual felt free to reject Rep. Edwards’ attention without fear of professional consequences,” said Rep. Mark Desaulnier of California, the top Democrat on the Ethics panel, during floor debate on the censure measure.
Edwards has denied wrongdoing, appealing to his colleagues last week in a lengthy letter to vote against the censure resolution. He argued “an affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition. A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct. Poetry is not sexual misconduct.”
He offered a similar defense in a floor speech Tuesday before the censure vote.
“I am imperfect,” Edwards said. “I have made mistakes, but I do not believe I committed sexual harassment and the factual findings of this investigation do not justify branding me as though I did.”
But Edwards did apologize to the staffers described in the report.
“I want to say something directly and publicly to the two women who have been at the center of all of this: I am sorry. I’m sorry that my actions, my judgement or the way that I expressed a friendship ever put either of you in an uncomfortable position,” Edwards said.
For many in the House Republican Conference, however, the report told them all they needed to know to inform their vote. Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia, for instance, said in advance of consideration of the censure resolution that he planned to support the measure because he “read the ethics report.”
Only Edwards and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) ultimately voted “no.”
Edwards’ letter seeking sympathy from fellow lawmakers also did not have the desired effect.
“Clearly the man … did not understand the gravity of his actions, showed no remorse, and really exemplified why the work that we’re doing on sexual misconduct reform is so critical,” said Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) in an interview Tuesday.
She and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) are working on bipartisan legislation to overhaul the congressional ethics process — including instituting new rules for how members are allowed to interact with congressional aides and establishing a more consistent rubric for how members should be punished for specific offenses.
“The training has to be improved,” Cammack said. “I think Chuck Edwards proves that.”
Censure is the most severe punishment the Ethics Committee can recommend short of expulsion, and amounts to a public shaming on the House floor with no further threat of disciplinary action.
It used to be a rare occurrence in the House, with a long gap between the early 1980s — when late-Reps. Daniel Crane and Gerry Studds were censured for sexual misconduct with a House page — and 2010, when late-Rep. Charlie Rangel was censured for inaccurate financial reports and federal tax returns, among other actions.
Censure resolutions have, more recently, become more frequent fixtures of House activity, though not typically as a result of House Ethics Committee investigations.
In 2021, Democrats sought to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for posting a manipulated social media video of him appearing to kill a likeness of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and attack then-President Joe Biden. The vote was 223-207 with two Republicans supporting the measure — former Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
A series of Republican-led censure measures were then brought in 2023 against three Democrats. Then-Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who is now a member of the Senate, was censured for “misleading the American public.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan was censured for allegations that she “promot[ed] false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel” — an issue that prompted 22 Democrats to join GOP lawmakers in support.
Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York was subject to censure for pulling the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building during a vote his party wanted to delay. Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense and paid a fine.
The most recent censure vote was in 2025, when Republicans sought to punish Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) for protesting in the middle of President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress.
-
Politics2 years agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
Politics2 years agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics2 years agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
The Dictatorship12 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words