Another prominent Florida Republican has publicly distanced himself from Donald Trump, days after María Elvira Salazar called out the US president’s immigration-enforcement policy targeting law-abiding undocumented immigrants.
Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor in November’s US midterm elections, launched an updated campaign website on Tuesday that was stripped of almost every mention of Trump and removed a photograph of the congressman and his wife, Erika, posing with the president, the Miami Herald reported.
Until now, Donalds has proudly touted his close ties with the president, running a Republican primary campaign themed largely on Trump’s endorsement, and displaying a large banner on his website advertising his support.
The move comes as Trump’s overall approval rating fell below 30% for the first time, dragged down by dissatisfaction over his handling of the US economy and the Iran war, and Republicans brace for heavy losses in November, including the possible loss of the party’s majorities in the US House of Representatives and Senate.
On Tuesday, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a top election prognosticator, moved the open Florida governor’s race from “likely Republican” to “leans Republican”. “The GOP is still favored in both, but close polling, a bad political environment, and possible exhaustion with long periods of Republican leadership may make both of these races fairly close,” the report’s author, Kyle Kondik, wrote.
The Herald’s reporting was based on research by the website tracking service Visualping, which recorded multiple changes to the Donalds site, including the removal of at least eight mentions of Trump from its homepage.
Prior to the alterations, Donalds described himself as a “Trump-endorsed proven conservative fighter”, while other since-removed banners featured a “chip in to support Trump-endorsed Byron Donalds” fundraiser and one of Trump’s “run, Byron, run” endorsement announcements from last year.
A previous capture by Wayback Machine of the Donalds website’s list of issues features “Enact the Trump agenda” as his number one priority; that has now disappeared, replaced by “affordability”.
The only reference to Trump that still appears is his name among a rolling list of endorsements for Donalds by other conservative and rightwing figures, including Elon Musk, Rick Scott, Mike Johnson and the late Charlie Kirk.
In a statement, the Donalds campaign said: “Our campaign website reflects Byron’s focus on the issues that matter most to Floridians – affordability, insurance costs and government transparency. He’s running to be the next Governor of Florida, is proud to have President Trump’s endorsement, and has real policy proposals to tackle those issues.”
Trump is “still all over the website”, a Donalds campaign official claimed.
Donalds clinched the Republican nomination for the election to succeed Florida’s incumbent governor, Ron DeSantis, in August. He has represented south-west Florida in Congress since 2021.
Politico reported on Monday that multiple Republican candidates in numerous November races are breaking with Trump, with mail-in ballots already sent out in some states and barely 40 days until 3 November.
“These candidates know how to read a poll,” a GOP strategist told the outlet. “They know he is kryptonite.”
In a statement, the Florida Democratic party called the purge “trouble in paradise” for Republicans.
“Florida voted for Donald Trump by 13 points two years ago. Now, Byron Donalds is pretending he’s never met the guy because he knows it’s his only shot at winning,” spokesperson Evan Ecklund said. “Byron is desperately trying to go no-contact.
“But Floridians know the truth: Byron Donalds has been Trump’s right-hand man throughout his disastrous presidency, and a phony last-minute breakup won’t change that.”
