Along with millions of other Sunshine State residents, I am so happy to be able to officially call our President Donald J. Trump a fellow Floridian.
I know the president must have agonized over the decision to move his residency here. He’s a born and bred New Yorker, a walking embodiment of the “New York State of Mind.” Donald Trump and New York City, where he built his real estate empire, had long been utterly inseparable.
But I also know that he made the right choice. I know this because, after long deliberation, I was forced to make the same decision myself. For years, my husband and I lived happily in California. Then the Golden State began its terrible slide from a theoretically redeemable “purple” battleground state into an irrecoverably left-wing, one-party state.
Sure, the taxes were always bad in California, but the burden didn’t truly become unbearable until the Democrats took over Sacramento. I’m sure Florida’s zero percent state income tax rate played a role in President Trump’s decision to flee to responsible Republican government, just as it did in mine. But there is so much more at stake than just tax rates.
The quality of life in California, for instance, has steadily declined as Democrats have implemented their insane open borders ideology. Public services suffered. Trash — and worse — piled up in the streets. Homelessness has spiraled out of control.
I imagine that Donald Trump went through a similar decision-making process. As one of New York City’s movers and shakers, he participated in the Big Apple’s rise from the dangerous, dark, Democrat-dominated 1970s to its reinvention as a clean, safe, and proud metropolis under Rudy Guiliani in the 1990s. Under current socialist Mayor Bill de Blasio, President Trump and his family have seen the warning signs of the city’s slide back to the bad old days.
New York’s homeless population is exploding, and de Blasio has shown himself woefully unprepared for the crisis. The city’s streets and public transportation are turning back into their grimy 1970s selves. All that de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo can think to do in response is raise taxes and disparage pillars of their community such as Donald Trump.
If Donald Trump needed his own “final straw” to make him leave New York, it probably came from New York’s politicians, who have repeatedly made clear that they plan to destroy him personally and politically, no matter what it takes. De Blasio himself publicly stated that the president is “not welcome” to return to his hometown after his presidency is over.
If the president needed any further motivation to become a Floridian, he found it in his new neighbors. Unlike New York, Florida is governed by competent Republican leaders and the people love it. Governor Ron DeSantis just hit 72 percent approval in a recent poll, the highest of any Florida governor in history, and he did it by adhering to a very MAGA agenda.
The president is going to feel right at home in his new home state. Donald Trump has always been Florida’s favorite son. Now, though, he’s made it official.
Dr. Gina Loudon, Ph.D. (@RealDrGina) is a bestselling author, columnist, and frequent news commentator. She is the National Co-Chairwoman of Women for Trump and is on the Donald J. Trump for President Media Advisory Board.
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