Throughout the pandemic conservatives (and even disaffected Democrats and independents) vacationed in and moved to the “Free State of Florida” in record numbers, attracted to relatively affordable housing and, well, freedom. Donald Trump spends the vast majority of his time there, escaping the New York winters, over-taxation, and politically-motivated, unscrupulous prosecutors. But according to an email he sent out Friday, the state is a hellhole.

Atop the email was this statement from Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesman.

“The real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair. He has left a wake of destruction all across Florida and people are hurting because he has spent more time playing public relations games instead of actually doing the hard-work needed to improve the lives of the people he represents.” 

Then the main portion of the email begins:

While Ron DeSantis engages in a weeks-long shadow campaign for president boasting his playbook, Florida continues to tumble into complete and total delinquency and destruction.

Thousands of people from places like New York, Michigan, Illinois, and California moved to Florida during the pandemic, many of them Republicans. Though the Miami area was hit with an unprecedented rain event last week and has been suffering from gas shortages as a result, it isn’t likely that those new Floridians will see that as a signal that the state is tumbling into “complete and total delinquency and destruction.” And, that characterization could lead to eyerolls from conservatives still stuck in places like San Francisco or Philadelphia or St. Louis that truly have tumbled into total delinquency and destruction.

Before listing numerous categories in which Florida resident Trump contends his state is the worst, he states:

On DeSantis’ watch, Florida has become one of the least affordable states to live in the country.

In his first term as Florida governor, Ron DeSantis raised taxes on Floridians by more than $1.5 billion.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that a Floridian making $10 an hour must work 86 hours per week just to afford rent on a modest single bedroom home in Florida.

The cost of living in south Florida shot up 10% in just the last year alone, the highest increase by far in years, while the national average was only 6.5%.

Home prices skyrocketed in Miami by 32% last year, and by 34% in Tampa.

According to a 2023 SmartAsset study, the Orlando metropolitan area was the 10th most expensive to live comfortably in the nation. Miami closely followed, as the 12th most expensive metropolitan area and Tampa also made the list, as the 16th most expensive.

Then, he hits DeSantis on high gas prices and recent shortages in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

While nearly half of the gas stations in Miami and Fort Lauderdale are without fuel, those Floridians lucky enough to find a gas station with fuel will be paying a stiff premium.

Florida ranks in the 10 most expensive states in the continental United States for fuel prices, and in 2023, Florida imposed a new hike on fuel purchases.

I haven’t clicked every link and read every piece of data the email links to as backup (and at least one Substack linked to is down, probably because of the amount of traffic directed to it), so I make no assessment of the claims. The link to the justification for the claim of a massive tax hike doesn’t work, but I am especially interested in reading more about that because it’s at odds with things DeSantis says in his speeches.

Undoubtedly, Ron DeSantis’ spokespeople will have rebuttals of the email’s contents.  I’ll preview what I think they might be.

First, Trump has praised DeSantis over the years, and since leaving office has talked about about how great it was to live in Florida and specifically praised DeSantis.

Second, given the number of people who moved to Florida in the past three years – some of them sent there by their employers who left California – it’s reasonable to see home prices increase rapidly and not anything any government official has much control over. And DeSantis supporters will likely point to the fact that Trump didn’t stand up to Fauci and Birx and blue state governors who kept millions of Americans under unjustified and ineffective “state of emergency” orders, which arguably contributed a great deal to the exodus to Florida and the resulting price increases.

Third, the fuel shortages in the Miami area are due to severe flooding at terminals at Port Everglades and, according to officials, panic buying is exacerbating the problem. Still, State of Florida emergency officials on Tuesday announced that they’re sending 500,000 gallons of gasoline to ease the pain, and said that delivery delays continue to decrease.

The point of me listing these anticipated defenses isn’t to prop up DeSantis or to slam Trump. Especially with this week’s revelations regarding whistleblowers and election interference and Alvin Bragg, Trump has solid arguments to make to Republican primary voters about why he should be the 2024 nominee. Choosing to send a melodramatic email telling Floridians and all of the people who moved there during the pandemic how terrible their home state is, using some fairly easily disputed points, doesn’t seem like the best tactic.