Trump Faces New Trouble in Florida Ahead of the Midterms

0:00Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is in full collapse in Florida, and he is dragging down the MAGA Republican candidates at the state and federal level. All that gerrymandering Trump and the MAGA Republicans were doing there, and frankly, across the country, blowing up and backfiring in Trump and MAGA's faces, because it was based on all of these assumptions that 2024 Trump voters would remain Trump voters, and that ain't the case at all. You take a look at the latest YouGov Economist poll, Trump's approval in Florida, historic lows, negative 17 points there. Look at the civics poll, Donald Trump's approval, negative 12 points there.

0:44Ben Meiselas:And let's take a look at what voters in Florida have to say about Donald Trump. How do they feel about the Trump regime thus far heading into the midterms? Take a listen for yourself. I would actually tell him to go f*** himself. Tell him to get his head out of his ass, stop being a little two-year-old and grow up and be a man. I don't give a f*** how much money he has. He's no better than anybody else. Now, this Labor Day, Florida families, like families across the country, are paying far more for everything, whether it's groceries, whether it's gas, whether it's ground beef, you name it, the American people are paying way more.

1:29Ben Meiselas:Things are far more expensive. And Donald Trump's trade war against the world, his escalation of his deranged trade war against Canada, and his catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran are making things impossible to afford. The cost of living crisis right now is getting way worse. I mean, just look at this. Fruits and vegetables up 5 % since 2025. Ground beef up 9 % since 2025. Hot dogs up 6 % since 2025. Steaks up 10 % since 2025. The highest Labor Day price at the gas pump on record as a result of the Trump regime's disastrous policies. Now, take a watch of this video right here where you'll see a number of former Trump voters, two-time Trump voters, three-time Trump voters, Florida voters in general.

2:24Ben Meiselas:Listen to what they say about Donald Trump's behavior. You're going to want to watch this full clip. Let's play it. How do you feel about your personal support, President Trump, right now? It has fallen dramatically. Everybody in my household is a Democrat now, and they're all pulling for me to become Democrat, but it's falling in the light. Why? Well, we're not getting, we're not seeing the promises that he said we'd get. If you could talk to President Trump about his priorities, about where he's focusing his attention right now, what would you tell him? I wish he would focus more on the American people, their suffering, gas prices, food prices, airline tickets.

3:11Those are the things that I would talk to him about.

3:13Ben Meiselas:If you could talk directly to him right now, what would you say? Make up, make, stop making promises. Do your job. At the end of the day, the people need you to do your job. Don't keep making empty word promises. Do what you promise. If you could talk directly to President Trump right now, what would you tell him right now? You don't want to know. I do want to know. Oh no, honey, you don't. It's not very ladylike, trust me.

3:40I've heard a lot of non ladylike things in my day.

3:44Ben Meiselas:Try me. I would actually tell him to go himself, tell him to get his head out of his ass, stop being a little two year old and grow up and be a man. I don't give a how much money he has. He's no better than anybody else. You take a look to of communities that supported Donald Trump, like the Cuban community, the Venezuelan community, all betrayed by the Trump regime. Cubans living in Florida are being deported to Africa en masse. Yes, I didn't misspeak. The Cubans in Florida are being deported to Africa. ICE sent them away under their policy of send them to any country randomly and torture them and torture their families.

4:32Ben Meiselas:Horrific. The Tampa Bay Times reporting the following. And this is a story I want to share with you. Yasmini Moreno thought he was being transferred. Again, the 32 year old Cuban who traveled between Tampa and Miami for work had already spent more than a year in immigration detention centers across the United States. Officers moved him from one jail to another, putting him on a plane in Texas on the morning of July 30th. No one told Moreno who originally came to the United States on a temporary protected basis where he was going until five hours into the flight when an immigration officer told him, you're going to Africa.

5:12Ben Meiselas:I honestly thought it was a bad joke because the officer laughed like he was making fun of me, Moreno said. A month after arriving in the Central African Republic, Moreno and 35 other immigrants, departed on a 24-hour flight, remain in Bangui, the country's capital without passports and no information about what will happen next. They stay at the Maison Comfort, a modest hotel located in a busy neighborhood near central Bangui. Moreno said they feel forgotten and fear they could be moved to another country. He said African authorities told them they may have to leave the room where they are staying within 90 days.

5:53Ben Meiselas:He started an online fundraiser to help him and other deportees in Africa. It's a completely inhumane situation, Moreno told the Tampa Bay Times via WhatsApp. What are we doing here? It's a question we ask ourselves every day, and this is part of the deportation to third country process by the Trump regime. And I've shared with you before the videos of the Trump regime torturing Haitians. These are people who were here working. These aren't criminals. These are people, and even if they were criminals, they shouldn't be treated like this. These are people on temporary protected status who had businesses, who have families, who have worked hard here, who have paid taxes, who were lawfully here, who were chained and shackled and are being sent.

6:39Ben Meiselas:In the case of Haitians, if they go back to Haiti, they could die and they're being sent to Africa and elsewhere. I mean, in locations that aren't their home countries, this is the cruelty of the Trump regime. Then you have several Florida trucking schools are being closed as a result of the Trump regime's policies that say if you don't meet the Trump regime standard of English proficiency, you can't be a trucker. You're destroying industries with your racist and hateful policies. Like, what in the world are you doing? And all the while, and you heard some of those Florida voters and two-time, three-time Trump voters, while people are suffering, while people can't afford gas and diesel and groceries and people can't afford their rent, the Trump regime is doing things like this and it's pissing people off in Florida and throughout the country.

7:34Ben Meiselas:Secretary Doug Burgum says, We are pleased to announce that after a very long wait, over 125 years, we are preparing to start over the next two-week period the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island between Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington National Cemetery. This will be one of the greatest pieces of American architecture. Nobody wants this. We don't want triumphal arches at all. People want health care. They want to be paid with dignity. They want to be able to afford a home. As Ambassador McFaul says, usually imperial emperors build such things after they win some great war.

8:18Ben Meiselas:But we are not an empire. We are not ruled by a monarch. And Trump has not won some great war. By the way, quite the contrary. Americans don't need this. If Trump wants to do this and build it in Florida, build your monument on your own dime in Florida. But it's worse because in Florida, he took public land for his purported presidential library, which he wants to turn into a skyscraper and bring in the Qatari Air Force One that the taxpayers had to ultimately pay for a billion dollars to renovate Qatari Air Force One, which isn't even able to fly. I mean, he had to hide in the catering container with Natalie because it can fly internationally.

9:01Ben Meiselas:It's not maxed out. Nobody wants this. And here's what CJ Warnke posts. There are signs that the same undertow dragging Republicans down nationally is in play in Florida. One Florida GOP operative said districts carried by Trump just two years ago by less than double digits are at risk. Anything 10 or below is in play for Democrats. I would even argue anything 14 or below. A Trump plus 14 district, in my view, is in play for Democrats because that's what we've been seeing in all the special elections. Democrats overperforming by plus 14, plus 16, plus 18. I want to bring in retired Brigadier General Leela Gray.

9:47Ben Meiselas:Retired Brigadier General Leela Gray is running in Florida's 13th congressional district. She's running against MAGA Republican extremist, Anna Paulina Luna. And I think this is going to be one of the most important races throughout the country. Let's bring in Lila Gray. Now, one of the congressional races that I think is actually up there on the most important, if not the most important congressional race, this midterm is Florida's 13th congressional district. It's currently being represented by MAGA Republican extremist Anna Paulina Luna. Yes, MAGA Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina, who invited in the Russians, despite there being sanctions and prohibitions on it, to visit the Capitol and gave him tours and gave him the red carpet treatment.

10:40Ben Meiselas:You know, also, I think someone who's been very overtly antagonistic, it's probably the nicest way I could even say it against American foreign policy and our national interests in my opinion. So I want to bring in the Democratic candidate who's running against Anna Paulina Luna, Lila Gray, retired Brigadier General Lila Gray, third generation veteran, lawyer and mom running for Congress to serve the people of Florida's 13th. And so I want to start at the outset of real dire times for our military perspective, from the perspective of like a government that's doing things in our national interest.

11:24Ben Meiselas:And it's not a political messaging point. I think it's a, frankly, a nonpartisan point when you observe just the fact that our Our military is really just, I feel like, being treated awfully by this Trump regime, by the Defense Secretary Hegseth, and by a lot of these MAGA Republican Congress members. And you served, retired Brigadier General, you served in a lot of different areas as well. I want to get your perspective on the outset about just like our military readiness and preparedness and just basic stuff. There's a lot packed in there, Ben. Thank you for having me. It is really a pleasure to talk on these, speak about these issues.

12:09But let me just also say right up front that if you'd like to learn a little bit more about me and my campaign and join Team Gray to go to our website, leelagray.com. Love to have you, love to learn more, love to get connected, love to earn your support. The national security issues that you're sort of referring to or spoke about directly about are of great concern to me. You know, I did serve for 30 years in uniform, and it wasn't the rank that I'm most proud of. It's the fact that I had the privilege of commanding four times, that I had the privilege of deploying three times, that I had the privilege to work with people from a wide variety of backgrounds across the United States and in my deployments.

12:51And that, I think, is a great, incredibly important training ground or experience to bring to Congress because for 30 plus years, you know, I was in uniform for 30 years, but I retired eight years ago. And one of the things that I think was central to my ability to achieve what I achieved in command and in my deployments and working for some incredible senior leaders that many people would recognize, you know, names would easily recognize is that when it comes to leading or to being responsible, it's about listening what the issues are first. It's about learning what is surrounding that issue.

13:30You know, if a soldier or sailor, airman or Marine brings something to you about I'm having this problem or we're not able to accomplish what we're supposed to be accomplished because of X. Then it's about listening to what is going on, learning about the pieces and parts that go into that and then leading to solve that. And that's what I plan to bring to Congress. And, you know, just pivoting briefly to the national security perspective, I wrote a post because the things that Hegseth has been doing to our military have me incredibly concerned. And the fact that, you know, Secretary Driscoll felt that he could not get those issues, his own issues that he saw occurring within the Department of the Army satisfied by going to Hegseth and having instead to go directly to President Trump, that the fact that he had to go outside the chain of command tells you almost everything you need to know.

14:19And in that post, I recited some of the things that have been happening since the beginning of 2025. And actually, it's a big reason of why I'm here today, because I refuse to stand by, to be on the sidelines, to stick my head in the sand, to watch all the things that we have built in America be dismantled, that the Constitution be ignored, that we abuse the rule of law. I refuse to stand by any longer. So I decided I needed to get in the race. And this is a classic example of why I'm here. I'm here to lead to solve these problems. And when you have a secretary like Hegseth that purges our military for no reason, we have a very distinctive process in place when there are reasons to remove senior leaders.

15:02And none of that was being adhered to. And then the fact that we're also not promoting the next round of senior leaders because of either the color of their skin or their gender, we have such a vacuum now. I mean, that was part of the story that really prompted me to talk about six things and more that have been occurring within the department that have me greatly concerned about the welfare of our service members, the readiness of our forces, and our international standing with our allies and partners.

15:30Ben Meiselas:Talk about the international standing with our allies and partners part, because you're running against a MAGA Republican extremist, Anna Paulina Luna, who is one of the key links. And this isn't me like mocking her or me, you know, being hyperbolic. It's just an objective fact between the Trump regime and Russia. She's invited some of the top Russian leaders to Washington, D.C. These are people who were sanctioned and actually prohibited from even being in the United States, top people in their Duma. She then would post photos and talk about really leaning in and making America allied with Russia at the same time pursuing a strategy that attacks Canada and NATO and weakens our alliances.

16:26Ben Meiselas:And I want you to respond to that. But I reflect on this moment, the Indo-Pacific conference that was held in British Columbia, where you had Admiral Paparo, who leads our Indo-Pacific fleet. And he was asked a question by a journalist about what would you do if you got an order to invade Canada? He was very dismissive of it. And he said, well, you know, that's like aliens coming down from outer space and all these things. And I understand his sentiments to some extent. But when you speak to Canadian people, you go, you're threatening us with annexation and you're doing the things that Russia did to Ukraine.

17:00Ben Meiselas:So we don't see this as a joke. We don't see the memes about taking us over as something that's funny. You use the word annexation. That's war language. You didn't just do a trade war. You declared a real war on us. So this is how we're treating our allies. This is how we're treating Russia. Russia just announced they were doing nuclear, they're helping Iran with nuclear capabilities at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And yet you're running against someone who seems to be Russia first, in my opinion, if people can disagree with that opinion, and people who are actually trying to hurt the United States.

17:34Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about that. It is clear that Luna is a sycophant, a mega Trump sycophant. And she, in my estimation, when you entertain sanctioned, Russian sanctioned leaders in our own state capital, it is very troublesome. And did they sweep for bugs afterwards? I hope so, because I would not put any trust in having them on our turf. They're very sophisticated. Let's be really clear and clear eyed about this, right? Our peer and near-peer competitors, some of them are not just competitors. They are enemies, if you want to put it really bluntly. We can't trust them. We might have to work with them because this is a global situation in a variety of ways.

18:26But we can't trust Russia. We can't trust Iran. We can't trust North Korea. And we certainly need to make while we make sure we have relationships with with China, we shouldn't trust them. We shouldn't give away our trust in that regard. And when you have a person like Luna, who has responsibilities as a representative of this district, Florida 13, to be representing the people here. But instead, she's entertaining, you know, sanctioned Russians. That is that is highly problematic. She's basically forgotten people here anyway, because her entire existence in the last two years has been about herself, her self-dealing, her self-promotion.

19:02She has created an incredible social media profile and national level media profile, but she's not delivered for her constituencies here. We wouldn't be under the strain and stress that we are under if she had been. Let's be real clear, too. She voted against FEMA in 2024. And oh, by the way, we got hit by two major hurricanes in 2024. for. In fact, we're about to hit the two-year anniversary of that. And people are still suffering. They're not even back in their homes right now. And they're not even back in there. Some of the businesses are not back up and running. So with the cost of living crisis that everybody's experiencing across the globe, people exactly like Luna, who are rubber stamping the war in Iran that is driving up costs, that she's rubber stamping these tariff taxes that are driving up costs, and she's certainly not focused on the people here.

19:51And that's why I think when I'm out in the field, I'm hearing over and over again, when I have my boots on the ground, I'm hearing over and over again, they feel forgotten. They're scared that they can't survive. Grown children are moving home because the cost of living crisis is, you know, is crushing them. And even though they have jobs. So then you're putting that pressure back on an entire, you know, elderly group of people that have long since retired and are winnowing down their retirement accounts. So this is, you know, national security is tied to our local security as well. And I consider that financial security, economic security, because we don't have that.

20:27We're really not going to be able to have a strong national security as well.

20:30Ben Meiselas:I think it's a great point because people like Trump and Hegseth and Anna Paulina Luna and other enablers did a foreign policy of trade war against the world, tariff everyone and everything, and that that was going to make us rich is what they promised. But I don't think that's the experience of people in Florida's 13th. Then they went into these catastrophic never ending wars with no plan. And ultimately what that means is higher costs, higher gas prices, higher prices of everything, inflation surging. And that impacts the people at home, not to mention Donald Trump's disastrous domestic policy.

21:08Ben Meiselas:So with all of that as background, though, you know, talk to us about Florida's 13th, because this is a very close race. There are some polls that have you ahead. There are some polls that have her slightly ahead. There are some polls that have it kind of dead heat. But you talk about it. The people in the 13th are, I think, objectively are doing worse. If that was the measure, are you doing better under all of this Paulina Luna Trump stuff or are you personally doing worse? I think the answer is worse. Talk to us about that. But then how do you make the next step of saying, why are we going to go back to that?

21:47Ben Meiselas:Why don't we try this? And here's my background as a proven leader in the military. And here's where we should go. Here's what we should do now. How do you make that pitch, especially with everything that's going on in the 13th? Well, you did summarize it correctly because, you know, as I mentioned, the hurricane. So, you know, across the board, people are experiencing cost of living crisis across the United States. And not everyone's feeling it the same way. It depends on where you are on the spectrum of your own personal economics and your personal finance. But in essence, for our district, because we are a coastal economy, and I mentioned the hurricanes, our crisis, our cost of living crisis is exacerbated because of the cost of insurances, both from the housing insurance, flood insurance, and even, believe it or not, car insurance.

22:37And then, of course, the health care crisis, the health care insurance situation that people are now paying double or triple. Same thing on their homeowner's insurance. I'm hearing stories from people that are paying double or triple what their homeowner's insurance were. And if you, you know, if you're like the average person and you make a budget and that's what you're sticking with, it's hard to absorb those kinds of dramatic increases and then tackle that. Or on top of that, the dramatic increases or the constant movement of the cost of gas and groceries and other, you know, essentials that we find ourselves.

23:08If you're taking your kids to school, you know, parents are telling me the cost of school supplies have gone up significantly. And I've also shared recently that I because I learned that Floridians have spent four billion dollars more on gas since the start of this war. And it's only been six months, four billion with a B. That's pretty dramatic. And then per household, it's been about twelve hundred dollar per household. I actually think it's higher. I don't think it's capturing everything that's happening in the households because I'm personally seeing it. And I have a, you know, I don't have a adult child to take care of or children or elderly parents like many of my colleagues and neighbors do.

23:48And so they're under, you know, even more of a squeeze there. But I think what you're seeing is this constant inability to focus on people and that instead we're watching, you know, this blatant corruption like, you know, the president getting, earning $2 billion last year, or in the case of the Congresswoman right here in Florida 13, Luna has invested almost a half a million dollars. It could be more actually, half a million dollars into one of her donors' private companies. I don't know where you get that kind of cash to invest in a private donor company, but there's a lack of ethics across the board here.

24:26And in fact, last week, beginning of last week, I introduced my anti-corruption agenda. And the basis of that comes from my military experience. It comes from the fact that as a senior leader in the military, we're held to a higher ethical standard than those that can send us to war. And so I want to stop that. We need to all be on the same playing field. If you've got general officers and admirals that have a higher ethical standard than the congressional members of the president of the United States, then that's not an even or a common sense approach to what we should be doing, governing this nation.

25:02And you're seeing the impact of that when you don't bring common sense problem solving to the issues that we're facing. You see these dramatic splits between our international partners and allies. You see this saber rattling that's going on with Canada and the threats going back and forth and the tariffs going back and forth. There's just a lack of what I would consider a common sense approach to solving our problems. We've got debt problems. And making things worse is not obviously the way to solve them. And we need to be intellectually honest about these issues. And we need to make sure that we're also leveraging our partners and allies.

25:44And I'll go back to the war with Iran. It's fascinating to me that we made a decision to go to war with Iran. We were not prepared for that because there's very clear signs if we were, we would have made sure we, you know, secured the Strait of Hormuz first. But six months later, then, you know, right after we get into the to the real heart of the war with Iran, we then expect our partners and allies to come in and start doing things within the strait or, you know, providing support when we never even consulted them before we decided to go to war. You know that we're not going to we can't be allowed to commit other nations to spend that kind of money and treasure without talking to them.