Lara Trump mentioned to fill Rubio Senate seat
(This story, which ran on the front page of Thursday’s Palm Beach Post, is being re-printed because of a design error.)
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President-elect Donald Trump ran his campaign promising retribution against a host of perceived opponents, including the press, prosecutors and Republican defectors.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may not be on any enemies list, but his relationship with the incoming president is a 'C' at best, said an ally of both men who deemed their connection 'serviceable' but in need of real work.
A factor in the discord: DeSantis’ brutal treatment of Susie Wiles, Trump’s campaign co-manager turned newly-minted White House chief of staff.
The governor five years ago pushed Wiles out of his own inner circle and got Trump to do the same. DeSantis then got her ousted from a lucrative job with Ballard Partners, a powerhouse lobbying firm.
'What he did to Susie? Well, that was just a low blow,' said Mike Hightower, a former health insurance lobbyist from Jacksonville who has known Wiles 40 years. 'He tried to take away her livelihood. Just so mean spirited.'
A two-word farewell may have implied more
One of the last public communications between Wiles and DeSantis was her cold, two-word post on the X social media platform the night the governor abandoned his presidential bid in January.
'Bye-bye,' Wiles wrote.
But the dynamic between Trump and DeSantis could be poised for more change.
Trump is expected to float a name for DeSantis to consider appointing as Florida’s next U.S. senator, to replace Marco Rubio, who the president-elect is nominating for Secretary of State.
Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, has been mentioned by some allies as a possible DeSantis appointee.
If asked, would DeSantis name her? 'This is a way he could repair his relationship with Trump significantly,' said one DeSantis adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump’s digital beatdown of DeSantis during primary
DeSantis challenged Trump last year for the Republican presidential nomination, failing miserably after being savaged by the former president’s campaign team in a barrage of digital advertising.
Trump saw DeSantis’ White House run as a betrayal and accused him of being disloyal. Trump clearly took credit for powering DeSantis to the governor’s office in 2018 with a couple of tweets endorsing him for the Republican nomination when he was a longshot candidate.
But that apprentice-like connection crumbled with DeSantis’ presidential run.
'Ron DeSanctimonious' became Trump’s nickname for his leading opponent during the presidential primary season, which ended for DeSantis after Iowa.
Along the way, Trump’s team lampooned DeSantis about his weight, his height, and a lingering, rumored anecdote of him having eaten pudding with his fingers.
DeSantis endorsed Trump the day he dropped out of the presidential race. But frostiness seems to linger.
Real estate investor was a Wiles workaround
DeSantis and Trump met for breakfast last spring at a South Florida golf course, a meeting arranged by Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor. Witkoff became a workaround, to avoid getting Wiles in the mix.
Trump appointed Witkoff on Tuesday as special envoy to the Middle East.
Wiles led campaigns for Trump and now-U.S. Sen. Rick Scott in Florida, and was brought into DeSantis’ 2018 campaign when he looked destined to lose to Democrat Andrew Gillum. She’s widely seen as helping organize the DeSantis effort that resulted in a narrow win that November.
'She’s done so much for so many people,' Hightower said. 'Nobody does it better than Susie.'
DeSantis, though, tossed her out when she was believed to be the leak behind early 2019 negative stories about the governor giving access to lobbyists in exchange for political contributions.
Wiles denied being the source. But she was exiled until Trump rehired her to lead his 2020 campaign in Florida, over DeSantis’ objections.
She was 2024 co-manager of Trump’s campaign and now, as chief of staff, will be the White House’s main gatekeeper, a critical position given the president-elect’s meandering instincts.
A Trump favorite
Wiles is 'tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,' Trump said in announcing her selection.
DeSantis didn’t campaign for Trump, but did raise tens of millions of dollars for the Republican nominee. And some of his allies say the relationship between Trump and DeSantis isn’t as bad as some think.
While DeSantis may not be invited for Oval Office visits, as he was during the first Trump presidency, Florida remains home for the president-elect and no one expects the White House to advance any funding or policy decisions intended to hurt the state.
Trump carried non-battleground state Florida by just over 13%, quadrupling his previous best performance in three runs for the White House.
DeSantis, meanwhile, spent much of the campaign season railing against a pair of Florida constitutional amendments that would have legalized recreational marijuana and expanded abortion rights.
Trump, DeSantis divide over marijuana amendment
Trump had endorsed the marijuana proposal, but didn’t play an active role promoting the measure, which also had the backing of Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican close to Trump.
Gruters, a former state GOP chair, also has had a fractious relationship with DeSantis. But with the abortion rights and marijuana measures falling short of their needed 60% approval from voters, DeSantis likely has been emboldened politically in Florida.
He also may have fended off what is historically a diminished role as a term-limited chief executive entering his final two years in office.
When the Florida Legislature meets Nov. 19 for its post-election organization session, Republican supermajorities will remain in the House and Senate. And the GOP-dominated Legislature has gone along with most of DeSantis’ policy demands.
That’s not expected to change – no matter how the governor gets along with the White House.
'At the end of the day, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are on the same team,' another DeSantis fundraiser said.
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on X at @JKennedyReport
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