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.
NEW YORK — With just five days to go until the primary election in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a stark warning to members of Congress who believe “incumbency is a substitute for action”: Watch out.
“People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party,” Mamdani said to the crowd at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn as he boosted his endorsed congressional candidates. “This slate here today is our answer. The Democratic Party must change.”
The democratic socialist framed Tuesday’s election as much more than what that means for New York, though. In recounting how people also ask him about the 2028 presidential election, he put it bluntly: “It starts now. It starts on Tuesday.”
“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “That old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes, because the party of the past will not be what leads us into the future.”
Mamdani, joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, urged his supporters to show up for his endorsed candidates “the way you showed up for me.” They include former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s challenging two-term Rep. Dan Goldman; state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who’s vying for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat; and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who’s trying to unseat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Mamdani’s endorsed slate of legislative candidates were at the rally, too.
The rally featured standard stump speeches from the candidates, highlighting the need to support working class New Yorkers and immigrants. Speakers called out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that has loomed over many of these primaries — despite no evident spending from its independent expenditure arm. Sanders also emphasized his call to ban super PACs, which have reshaped primaries across the city.
Taking place just hours after the massive ticker-tape parade celebrating the Knicks’ historic championship, there were also Knicks references galore.
“I hate to break it to you, but OG Anunoby is not here to save the day,” said Mamdani, who was wearing a Knicks jersey under his suit. “The only hands we can count on are ours.”
Sanders, who is wildly popular in New York, previously endorsed Valdez and Lander. Both Valdez and Avila Chevalier are members of the Democratic Socialists of America and are backed by the city chapter in their bids. Sanders had not officially endorsed Avila Chevalier prior to the rally.
“Why are progressives and socialist candidates winning elections all across this country?” Sanders asked. “The answer in my view is not complicated. The working class of America understands that our current economic system is rigged, that it is designed to benefit the wealthy and the powerful.”
Polling has shown Lander with a lead over Goldman, and a tight race for Velázquez’s seat. Public polling is scarce in the Espaillat race, but recent internal surveys suggest Avila Chevalier is posing a real challenge to the incumbent. Mamdani endorsed her just weeks ago, much later than Lander and Valdez, but his engagement in the race has significantly elevated its profile.
“Six months ago, they told us this race was over before it started,” Avila Chevalier said at the rally. “They told us Adriano was untouchable, that he was an institution, that you don’t run against someone like him and win. That this district was his, and that we should wait our turn. And they said it with such confidence, like the outcome had already been written. Look around. Look at what we’ve built.”
Mamdani’s decision to get involved in congressional races is stress-testing how the new mayor navigates relations with powerful, well-respected party figures — many of whom he’s on the opposite side of.
Mamdani’s endorsement is expected to be a significant asset for his picks; he had dominant performances across these districts in last year’s mayoral primary. And that shine doesn’t seem to have dulled. Recent polling has shown that Mamdani has high approval ratings.
Goldman did not support Mamdani during last year’s mayoral primary or the general election, as Lander has often pointed out. Espaillat backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, but supported Mamdani in the general election. Valdez’s opponents, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and city Council Member Julie Won, both supported Mamdani in the primary.
The mayor has been active on the trail for his congressional candidates of choice in the closing stretch of the campaign. And he touted them all in an advertisement that ran during the first game of the Knicks’ finals run.
Still, Lander has tried to keep some distance. When asked at a recent press conference why he would appear in that ad with Avila Chevalier, who attended a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in 2023 — the same rally Lander said he left the DSA over — he said it was an “opportunity to show New Yorkers that politics can be a team sport.” He also clarified that he has not endorsed candidates in any other congressional primaries.
Avila Chevalier told reporters that she went to that rally to “stand against” Israel engaging in “a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life.” She added that she has “condemned Hamas” and does “not believe that celebrating the loss of anybody’s life is OK.”
Kings Theatre isn’t located in any of the districts these congressional hopefuls are trying to represent — though it neighbors the seats that Lander and Valdez have their eyes on.
It’s especially far from Espaillat’s district, which includes parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
While handing out campaign literature to people walking out of the subway in Hamilton Heights, Blue Light News asked Espaillat if he had thoughts about Avila Chevalier appearing at the rally.
“I’m rallying right here in my district with my constituents — not in Brooklyn,” he replied.
Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.
Retirement groups are calling on Congress to investigate Meta over a wave of social media scams targeting older Americans.
In a letter sent Thursday to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the groups alleged Meta has been slow to take down fraudulent ads, leaving seniors vulnerable to financial loss. The letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, was signed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Postal Workers Union Retirees and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.
“Fraudulent Medicare ads have proliferated on Meta platforms and too many seniors are getting scammed while Meta profits,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “We are calling on Congress to investigate how these scams are allowed to spread, what Meta knew about them, and why stronger protections are not in place. Seniors should not be left vulnerable while scammers and tech companies cash in.”
The letter’s demands follow a report published last month by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit advocacy group, which alleged that Meta has profited by leaving up fraudulent ads, many of which target Medicare recipients.
“Scammers are determined criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud people and evade detection,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We aggressively fight scams on and off our platforms because they’re not good for us or the people and businesses that rely on our services and for years we’ve been one of law enforcement’s strongest partners in the fight against this type of online crime — identifying criminals, disrupting their crimes and helping bring them to justice.”
Stone pointed to several examples of Meta’s efforts to combat scams on its platform, including a recent collaboration with U.S. and Thai law enforcement to disrupt online scams.
It’s not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over the scams: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission to open an investigation into the company in November after Reuters reported that Meta in internal documents projected 10 percent of its 2024 revenue would come from fraudulent ads. And in February, a group of bipartisan lawmakers pressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over its plans to prevent and combat fraud on its platforms.
Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) also introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year to combat predatory scam ads.
Congress is expected to send a landmark, bipartisan housing affordability bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the end of next week as the Senate and House schedule action on the legislation in the coming days.
The Senate has teed up the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act for final passage on Monday, after completing all its necessary procedural votes this week.
The legislation will then move on to the House where GOP leadership plans to open debate on Wednesday, with a vote expected as early as the same day, according to six people familiar with the vote granted anonymity to discuss plans.
House leadership plans to suspend the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote, to speed up the bill’s path to Trump’s desk. Final passage could be pushed to Thursday depending on timing, the people said.
The housing bill aims to tackle housing affordability and boost homeownership and supply ahead of a midterm election dominated by cost-of-living concerns.
The four lawmakers leading the negotiations over the legislation — Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.), ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — came to an agreement Tuesday afternoon after months of back and forth on the bill’s contents.
The housing affordability legislation, which the White House supports, contains a provision limiting the role of large institutional investors in the single-family housing market, which was a key condition for Trump to sign the bill.
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