Florida Unveils Voting Map to Help Republicans—But It Could Backfire

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis released his new proposed congressional map Monday that aims to grab four more Republican seats in the House of Representatives.

DeSantis told Fox News that “Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since.

“Our population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage. Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited,” DeSantis added, without mentioning that his office also drew the state’s congressional maps in 2022 after the census.

The state House and Senate now have to approve the new map, which would then go to DeSantis’s desk to be signed into law and take effect for November’s midterm elections. If it is passed, the hope is that Republicans would increase their 20–8 congressional seat advantage to 24–4.

The Democrats most at risk by this proposal are Representatives Kathy Castor, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. But as Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman pointed out, redrawing Castor’s district will risk neighboring Republicans in Tampa Bay, who will suddenly have new Democratic constituents.

DeSantis, just as in 2022, is attempting to get around Florida’s Constitution, which bans legislators from drawing districts with “the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.” He’s trying to claim executive privilege, make the process as opaque as possible to frustrate legal challenges, and then run out the clock on those challenges.

If successful, Republicans hope that their nationwide redistricting will beat out efforts in Democratic-run states like California and Virginia and ultimately stem a backlash against Trump and the GOP this November. But eliminating four safe Democratic seats to create unsafe Republican seats could easily backfire and make the whole effort moot.

President Donald Trump enthusiastically endorsed the idea of changing “ICE” agents into “NICE” agents, in another lame effort to own the libs as his presidency continues to implode.

Last month, Alyssa Marie, a former “journalist” with Project Veritas, the far-right organization known for its hidden-camera stings, pitched a dystopian rebrand for the federal agents charged with carrying out the president’s mass deportation scheme.

“I want Trump to change ICE to NICE (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement) so the media has to say NICE agents all day everyday,” she wrote on X.

More than a month later, the president responded enthusiastically to the idea. “GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT,” he wrote on Truth Social Sunday.

MAGA accounts on social media were instantly whipped into a frenzy as they discussed how satisfying it would be to watch the president’s critics melt down because they had to refer to “NICE” agents. While Trump may know how to fire up his own base, it seems that Americans aren’t really interested in an administration whose singular goal is to own the libs.

As of last week, Trump’s approval rating has sunk to less than 40 percent. Some polls have seen him shrink to a second-term low, while others have seen him at the lowest depths of either term in office. While Trump’s latest dive bomb is a direct result of his reckless military campaign in Iran, ICE’s lawless actions are playing no small part in the president’s slow fall from grace.

American voters have borne witness to ICE agents’ use of threats and intimidation, excessive force, warrantless searches or arrests, racial profiling, and wrongful detentions. ICE has detained hundreds of children, and families of mixed legal status are being regularly torn apart by the administration’s relentless immigration crackdown. Federal immigration agents were also responsible for the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

But sure. Call them “NICE.” It won’t get you reelected.

The White House is already using Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to try and get a lawsuit against President Trump’s ballroom dropped.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted a letter on X Sunday night to lawyers for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is suing to stop the ballroom’s construction. The letter demands the organization dismiss its “frivolous lawsuit,” claiming the shooting proved the necessity of the ballroom as a “safe space.”

“Yesterday’s assassination attempt on President Trump proves, yet again, that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff,” the letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, states.

“Put simply, your lawsuit helps put the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk. I hope yesterday’s narrow miss will help you finally realize the folly of a lawsuit that literally serves no purpose except to stop President Trump no matter the cost,” the letter added.

Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning about how “what happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE.”

It’s almost astonishing at how quickly the administration came up with this excuse for the ballroom, trivializing an actual assassination attempt on the president and top Cabinet officials. Just hours after the shooting, some of the president’s most fervent MAGA supporters were posting about the need for a ballroom for the safety of the president and the first family, giving fodder to conspiracy theorists.

Their argument is hollow: This wasn’t a White House event, and thus, wouldn’t have been held at the White House—so no ballroom would have helped him. Moreover, the president is going to have to leave the White House grounds for events, and shouldn’t be hiding from interacting with the American people in a gilded ballroom. The idea that this bloated, ethically compromised monstrosity on the White House grounds is somehow necessary for safety reasons is a joke.

First lady Melania Trump is calling on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel for a joke he made well before any shots were fired at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, calling the late night talk show host a “coward” whose jokes deepen “the political sickness within America.“

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy—his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she wrote Monday morning on X. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”

The first lady framed her comments as if Kimmel’s joke directly contributed to the shooting Saturday. That was not the case.

“Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said at a parodied version of the dinner Thursday.

Two days later, suspected gunman Cole Allen attempted a shooting at the Correspondents’ Dinner, resulting in chaos. And while Kimmel’s joke aged poorly (just like White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comment about “shots” being fired at the dinner), his joke wasn’t what led to Trump being in danger.

If the first lady is so upset by Kimmel’s comments, she should spend some time scrolling Truth Social—her husband was just making genocidal threats to Iran last month.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner devolved into a chaotic scene Saturday after a gunman rushed past security. Afterward, multiple current and former law enforcement agents told MS NOW that there were three glaring security issues that may have made this possible.  

First was the reliance on a single security checkpoint. Fox News’s Bill Melugin recounted how he entered the Washington Hilton by simply flashing his ticket. To enter a pre-party at the venue, guests did not have to present identification or submit to security screenings. 

“Only once it was time to get into the main ballroom for the dinner did we pass through magnetometers, empty our pockets, and get a pat down. And even that checkpoint was just outside of the dinner room,” Melugin wrote on X Sunday. 

The security checkpoint was set up only a staircase away from the ballroom entrance to avoid interfering with the hotel’s other guests. Staffers at the security checkpoint weren’t paying as close attention after the dinner began, because they were not expecting additional arrivals, a current Secret Service agent told MS NOW.

Second, many of the security officials who spoke with MS NOW also voiced concerns over the apparently chaotic evacuation efforts. Why was Vice President JD Vance escorted off the stage before President Donald Trump? A Secret Service official told MS NOW that Trump’s security team believed the ballroom was safe, and took a moment to ensure an underground walkway was secure before escorting the president there. Trump admitted later that he’d intentionally slowed down his own departure. He was also seen tripping on the way out. 

WTOP News documented a staggered departure for other administration officials. Minutes after Trump fled, a security team swarmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s table. Shortly after, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche were escorted out of the room. Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel waited for several minutes before being evacuated. 

And finally, it seems that in general, security officials questioned whether the Washington Hilton was a suitable venue for an event hosting the president of the United States and multiple Cabinet members. “Hotel guests could still come and go, no checking credentials nor physical screening outside of area, just the [magnetometers] near the ballroom,” one former Secret Service official told MS NOW. “Considering the VP and Cabinet members were there, there should have been more security.”

One former presidential detail leader told MS NOW: “I hate that venue. Too much working against you.”