Bill Cotterell: Florida Republican politicians line up to show loyalty to Trump

Yahoo

09-02-2025

In addition to their official duties, like passing laws and running the government, Florida Republican politicians seem determined to one-up each other in showing devotion to everything President Donald Trump has ever said, done or might think of in the future.
U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna looks like the momentary front runner in cringeworthy flattery. She's introduced a bill directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to carve Trump's face on Mount Rushmore.
'Honest' Abe and that 'I cannot tell a lie' guy might get up and leave if the neighborhood goes to hell like that. But Luna believes Trump's 'bold leadership and steadfast dedication to America's greatness' make him fit to gaze o'er the South Dakota Badlands forever.
The Pinellas County congresswoman's idea probably won't get far in Congress, considering the tiny GOP majority in the House. But sponsoring the bill assured the little-known second-termer a day or two of media attention and gives Luna bragging rights if any challenger tries to out-sycophant her in a Republican primary next year.
And Trump himself is known to prefer fealty laid on with a dump truck.
Meanwhile, back home in Florida, legislative leaders broke up with Gov. Ron DeSantis and decided Trump's brand of aggressively deporting illegal immigrants is this year's new cool thing. DeSantis had summoned a special legislative session, purportedly to prepare Florida for the Trump illegal immigration crackdown, but House and Senate leaders took the topic away from him politically and literally.
First, Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez abandoned the governor's special session and immediately convened one of their own, just to set the agenda. Then they overrode a DeSantis budget veto from last year, which is sort of like leaving a horse head in his bed. And then they shelved some other business the governor had wanted, and wrote their own immigration crackdown bill.
For their next middle finger aimed at the governor, Perez and Albritton stretched real hard and found the most cloying, fan-boy acronym imaginable for their legislation. They named it the TRUMP Act — for 'Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy.'
A couple of years ago, Albritton and Perez might have dubbed it the DESANTIS Act — for 'Deport Every Single Alien National That I See' — back when he ran everything. But Trump is the object of their worship now, not DeSantis.
No legislation has strained so hard for a memorable label since the 1986 petition campaign creating the state lottery, which was called MOVE — meaning 'Margin Of Victory for Education.' (Education Commissioner Ralph Turlington, who led the lottery campaign, had to drop the MOVE moniker after a radical group by the same name had a tragic and deadly clash with Philadelphia police.)
People United For Medical Marijuana — an acronym pronounced 'puff 'em' — was a pretty catchy tag for the first effort at legalizing medical marijuana. But that wasn't nearly as neatly named as the TRUMP Act.
Better yet, there's the added pleasure of making Democrats wince every time they say it, kind of like when the Republicans named Florida's Turnpike for Ronald Reagan in 1998.
The clearest signal that DeSantis' six-year dominance of the House and Senate is over came when the Legislature decided to vest headline-making immigration police powers not in his office but with Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
DeSantis and Simpson are not the best of pals. Simpson is considered a likely candidate to succeed DeSantis in two years, when the governor can't run again. DeSantis contends that putting an agriculture commissioner in charge of illegal immigration enforcement would be, literally, 'putting the fox in the hen house,' because farming is heavily dependent on migrant labor.
Simpson, Albritton and Perez talked up their dedication to helping Trump during the special session. Simpson even dropped a reference to DeSantis running against the president in last year's primaries, which didn't end well for the governor.
But even in his lame duckery, DeSantis remains the most powerful Republican in Florida. For two more years, he will appoint people to major offices and sign or veto bills and budget items vital to the ambitions of legislators.
Bright and early the day after the special session, DeSantis began campaigning against the legislative package, saying it would actually weaken immigration enforcement and make Florida 'a de facto sanctuary state.' And he vowed to veto the TRUMP Act, assuring that the immigration issue — and his new feud with House and Senate leaders — will carry forward into the 2025 legislative session and beyond.
Bill Cotterell is a retired Capitol reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at [e-mail]
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (about 500 words) to [e-mail]. Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at Tallahassee.com/Zing.Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Bill Cotterell: Florida Republicans racing to show fealty