President Donald Trump isn’t done humiliating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Late Thursday, he ended the speculation surrounding his preferred candidate for the Sunshine State’s 2026 governor’s race by endorsing MAGA loyalist Byron Donalds for the position.
“I am hearing that Highly Respected Congressman Byron Donalds is considering running for Governor of Florida, a State that I love, and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” the president wrote on Truth Social before speaking at the Republican Governors Association’s annual meeting. “As Governor, Byron would have a BIG Voice, and would work closely with me to advance our America First Agenda.”
He continued, “Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida and, should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!”
Donalds has yet to confirm he will run for the governorship, but after Trump’s endorsement, the GOP congressman posted on social media that he’s “committed” to working with Trump to “keep Florida great,” mentioning he will soon announce his plans.
The president’s support for Donalds will surely have a chilling effect on the race. Trump won Florida by more than 13 percentage points this past November. And his endorsement comes before any serious candidate officially has declared their intention to run.
It’s likely that Trump wanted to stick it to Ron DeSantis one last time before the governor’s term ends in January 2027. (The current governor is term-limited and cannot run again.) After all, Trump’s endorsement of Donalds comes right as speculation ramped up that Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis, was considering running to succeed her husband.
Florida first lady Casey DeSantis
According to NBC News, Ron DeSantis had recently started making calls about his wife’s potential run.
“I don’t know if that changed Byron’s timeline at all, but the sitting governor was starting to make calls, it seems to have really kicked this race off,” a donor who spoke with DeSantis told the outlet.
Donalds likely wanted Casey DeSantis out of the race, too. At least one poll showed her favorables higher than his, and it doesn’t help that Ron DeSantis and Donalds have a rocky relationship. While the two were once allies, their relationship soured, in part, due to a disagreement over how middle schoolers in the state should learn about Black history. Donalds criticized the new guidelines approved by the governor, which stated that students should be informed about how Black people benefited from slavery.
Neither DeSantis has commented on Trump’s endorsement of Donalds, but Trump’s endorsement may have dashed Casey’s plans for running.
“Looks like that’s that,” one Ron DeSantis donor told Politico.
And it’s not just Casey DeSantis who may decide to sit out the race now that Trump has handpicked DeSantis’ successor. Even embattled former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who entertained the idea of running for the governor’s seat, acknowledged that Donalds is the clear favorite.
“That’s a big boost for Byron,” he told Politico.
Assuming Casey DeSantis and Gaetz don’t run, that would leave Wilton Simpson, the state’s agriculture commissioner, as Donalds’ only potential challenger. But as Politico noted, Simpson could instead just seek a second term in his current office.
One reason why Trump’s endorsement could preemptively end the GOP’s gubernatorial primary is because the president has a lot of sway in Florida. Trump’s backing of DeSantis in 2018 was pivotal to his campaign; the Republican went on to win that year’s primary with 57% of the vote.
And unfortunately, there’s no indication that Trump’s influence over the party is waning. Any Republican hoping to succeed in Florida—a state Trump has called home since 2019—needs to kiss the ring and earn Trump’s favor. Or at the very least, they need to avoid getting on his bad side.
Although Donalds hasn’t officially announced his candidacy for governor, he’s been telling donors since at least January that he intends to run. And he hired an alum of Trump’s 2016 campaign: Fabrizio, Lee & Associates. This firm, led by Tony Fabrizio, who was Trump’s chief pollster during his first presidential campaign and has conducted polling for MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC.
Donalds will become Florida’s first Black governor if he runs and wins. And the early endorsement from Trump is surely a boon for his odds. So much for Trump missing Gaetz.
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