Transcript of Trump's Florida Problem Gets Worse as David Jolly Speaks Out New

Donald Trump is in full collapse in Florida and his bootlickers like Byron Donalds, the MAGA Republican candidate for governor, struggling as well. Hey Byron, maybe not a good platform to run on data centers in everyone's backyard and shutting down small business opportunities. Yeah, you may wanna recalibrate there, but after all, this is what Donald Trump is talking about at his Mar-a-Lago parties where Byron Donalds and others attend while they talk about the golden ballrooms and gilding bronze statues gold and whatever the hell Donald Trump wants to be doing with Qatari Air Force One. So while Trump gives himself and his family tax immunity while the American people struggle and Trump leaves a trail of broken promises would be putting it generously. It is a trail of fraud and Ponzi scheming which has defined Donald Trump's entire bankrupted life. When you zoom in on Florida, Trump's approval, net negative 15 right there. And you could see why. I mean, the interview Trump gave on Friday, did you see it on Punchbowl where Trump said, look, if I were to rank myself 0 to 100 on the economy right now, I would give myself a 150 because things have never been better.

We're in a golden age. Just ask the people in Florida, right? Their electricity prices are down. Eh, that's not true. Their rent, their cost of living is down. Mm, that's not true. They love the data centers. Mm, that's not true. Their property— You may just want to shut the hell up there, Donald. Listen to what he said. Play this clip.

But our country right now is doing better than it's ever done. You know, when I see polls on the economy, I should have 150%, not 100%. Oh yeah. Because we have the greatest— This is the golden age of America. What's being built now in this country has never ever been built. And we're really— we are literally in the golden age of America. And I think people are starting— I actually think people are starting to see—

89 days.

We'll see if they—

it's going to be very exciting.

And then Donald throws Byron Donalds under the bus. And he said, you know, people like me. The issue is they don't like other Republicans. And so nothing I can do if they don't like these other Republicans, but they want me. That's what Donald Trump's campaign message is. Here, play this clip. Do you— MAGA Inc, the super PAC that you— that your allies control, has a lot of money and a lot of people.

Not my allies. I control it.

Okay.

You and your allies.

$800 million.

Are you going to spend it?

It's funny. Nobody ever— of course I'm going to do.

You're going to spend it in the midterms.

I could spend it on pretty much anything I want. I'm going to spend it for— I'm going to help Republicans this midterm. So when you say I don't care—

No, I didn't say that.

I said some people say that.

Yeah, look, I mean, I could do a lot easier. I didn't have to be away in Nevada yesterday. I didn't have to be in Los Angeles yesterday making speeches. I didn't have to be supporting all the people. I have a lot, you know, I have a busy schedule. I said to somebody, wait a minute, you don't understand. I won. I'm not campaigning. Now that's the other thing. I get a tremendous vote. I have records in many of the states, the most votes ever in Texas and Florida and many, many states, Alabama. You can go through many, many states. The most votes ever. The question is, and they're asking this question, and I've had some great polls recently, real polls, but they're great polls. If I don't run, will those people go out and vote? And that's the one thing I can't tell. I'm going to ask them to, but I'm just watching guys like you and you're very talented people. The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you.

I don't know.

I mean, they're angry at Republicans, but they're not angry. Why? They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.

As I noted at the outset, Byron Donald says he doesn't see a future for small business grants in Florida. He sees supporting small business as a, quote, never-ending cycle that creates a moral hazard. Where do these sick people come from? What the hell are you talking about? A moral hazard? Back in the real world, let's take a look at how Florida voters are feeling, including some people who may feel otherwise previously sympathetic to Trump. Here, play this clip right here. I don't know if he's gaslighting us or delusional.

I don't know what it is.

People are People are struggling financially, and it's affecting people mentally. People are more aggressive, and I don't blame them.

Like, the pressures of, you know, paying their bills. And so I get it.

Now you zoom in on some of the polling data out in the last 60 days or so. What's the governor's race look like? David Jolly, the Democratic candidate, 49%. Byron Donalds, Byron Trump bootlicking Donald's 43% right there. Ooh, I don't know about that, Byron. You see Byron Donald's panicking now. He's like, oh, I'm not really sure. Maybe we do, do we like Donald? What should we do about data centers? What am I supposed to say? Donald's like, data centers everywhere, Byron, data centers everywhere. Put liquid gold, liquid gold. So freaking embarrassing, these MAGAs, right? They had their opportunity. They control all government in Florida. They screwed it all up. They destroyed people's lives and they continue to make things worse. Let's talk about change. Let's bring in David Jolly, the Democratic candidate for governor in Florida. Bring in my interview that I just did with Mr. David Jolly. Now I want to bring in David Jolly, candidate for governor of the great state of Florida. David, great to see you.

Hey, great to be with you.

Looks like you're gonna be going— we'll have to see what happens in that Republican primary because I'm not sure it's a foregone conclusion necessarily it's gonna be Byron. He's flailing over there. But, you know, people are looking at Florida, David, as a real chance to finally, you know, flip Florida blue. But I don't even think people are using these constructs anymore, just away from all of these forces that have caused such a great deal of harm to Florida. And this country. And I'm looking at your polling and I'm seeing this is a real chance to flip Florida. What are you seeing when you're there? What are you hearing from the people?

Yeah, if the election were tonight, we'd win the governorship, the state of Florida.

And I mean that.

I've been involved in politics for about 30 years. I would not have gotten involved in this race if I did not know there was a pathway. Look, I think we're living through what might be a 1974 post-Watergate moment where enough voters are saying, burn the ships, we're going in a new direction. And the reason I say that's based on data, uh, not just aspiration and hope. In Florida, we've seen our special elections this cycle swing like others have across the country, 15, 20, 25 points. We've elected a, a Democratic mayor of Miami for the first time in 30 years, and it was by 19 points. And so if the election were tonight, we'd win. What I say to my Democratic friends is let's be careful not to presume we've won hearts and minds because we're not registering a lot more Democrats. But voters are giving Democrats an opportunity to lead. And so I also say for this reason, look, I'm a proud Florida Democrat, not a reluctant one, and I want Democrats to win across the country in November. But sometimes I think maybe calling this a blue wave might be mislabeling it. I think it's a change election cycle, and in some places it is an ideological change that is moving blue.

But in states like Florida, understand, You know, Florida Democrats represent just under 30% of the state. Now it's roughly a third, a third, a third between Democrats, Republicans, and independents, but we're kind of 3 out of 3 in that stack. And so what we are building may be less of a blue wave and more of a change coalition, but Democrats are being asked to lead that change coalition. And this is the historic opportunity. And so I talk about 3 values. The economy should work. Government can do a little bit to improve our lives, and everyone's rights should be protected. If we're focused on those values rooted in democratic tradition, they're big enough to build a new coalition in American politics.

You know, it certainly seemed that even for some time there was this desire to kind of burn it down but build up something better. And people like Donald Trump and Byron Donalds, they kind of identified the problem because they were the ones causing it. That's right.

That's right.

And so they said, we're, we're the ones here's who are going to fix it and here's what will make it better on day one. And what's been exposed is, as to your point, it isn't necessarily this team, that team, this or whatever. It's that the people who were behind the problems, they convinced people that they were going to fix it. They've now exposed themselves as the problem creators and they've made the situation worse. So that same desire by the people for that change is still there. They're just going, wait a minute, you just conned me, you defrauded me., and I need someone who's really gonna fight for me right now.

That's exactly right. Let me share with you the wisdom of a taxi driver about 8 years ago. I got in a cab in DC. This taxi driver says, hey, Jolly, I know you from TV and I wanna tell you something. I voted for Donald Trump. And I said, oh really? Tell me why. And he said, well, listen, I voted for Trump 'cause I wanted somebody to break everything. And then he said, but I don't think he can fix it. I just needed somebody to break it. The wisdom of a taxi driver. This is exactly what we're talking about. Look, every election voters tell us what they want, right? We can analyze it all we want, but sometimes voters express an ideological direction of they want the country. Sometimes it's stay the course. Sometimes it's a disruptive populist moment. Sometimes it's a change election cycle. Voters right now know that there is an economic crisis that's gripping too many people. Half of the people in our country have lost upward mobility and we're losing hope. More people in Florida are going without healthcare than ever before. Half the state doesn't have enough savings to last 2 weeks.

In a universal school choice state, Florida's families don't know where to educate their kids without having to pay tuition on top of vouchers. So the economy isn't working. We see the outright corruption from those in power. That's true in Washington and Tallahassee. And honestly, we're exhausted by the culture wars. Even some Republicans are just exhausted by the culture wars. We're not fixing insurance by attacking the LGBTQ+ community. We're not lowering the cost of housing by telling teachers they're not allowed to teach Black history in our schools. And so enough voters are saying, look, I've had it. All I see is corruption. The economy stinks for too many people, and I want to see some new leaders try some new things, right?

Take a look at what happened on Friday, a terrible terrible jobs report comes out talking about 24,000, 25,000 jobs lost when the expectation was supposed to be close to 90,000 jobs gained, which, by the way, would still be light in comparison to, you know, some pre-Trump metrics. But then this was being celebrated on Fox and their kind of, you know, far right-wing MAGA business people as, well, this is great for the corporations because this may help them not have to deal with higher interest rates. And then the market started doing well and people are like, what about, what about me? Like, that's not a good report. And I heard, you know, all these MAGA people, you know, Trump said this and others, he's saying on a scale from 1 to 100, this is what he said on Friday. We should get a 150 because this is the golden age and we did it. And Byron Donald says to the people of Florida, this is the golden age. This is it right now. We're all rich. We're like, what are you— what are you talking about? It ain't happening.

Yeah, and look, he gave President Trump an A on the economy. Look, I take a somewhat newer approach, I think, in Democratic politics maybe. I don't really like class warfare. I don't think we need to beat up on success. What we need to beat up on is special interests and the influence of the super wealthy. And so I say, let's encourage success. Look, I want Florida to be the financial capital of the world. I want our economy to grow. And, and I don't have to fight the haves to fight for the have-nots. But where it turns into that intersection with raw power, that's where you see the real anger emerge. And I feel that anger alongside so many people across the state, right? I'll give you an example. Byron Donalds has raised over $100 million. And I point out, that's not charity. That's not charity. They're buying Byron, right? Where's that money coming from? It's coming from the private equity real estate plays that wanna turn every neighborhood into an Airbnb. It's coming from big tech and big utilities that want to use, in Byron's words, pristine Florida lands to build hyperscale data centers. It's coming from the for-profit education industry and the financial backers that are defunding public education and creating a choice program with no rules, but a whole lot of profit.

It's coming from our utilities companies, from the Seminole Tribe that runs our gambling compact, Everyone who has controlled Tallahassee for the last 30 years and created these economic conditions have now bought their candidate so they can control Tallahassee for 4 more. That is where the power gets displaced. And so, yes, if you're a voter right now and you're saying, look, I am working harder than ever before, I'm falling behind, I don't know where to get healthcare, I worry about whether I should raise my kids here because the economy's gotten away from us, I don't know if I can stay in my home because the insurance market is collapsing. But every time I look at Tallahassee, the people in charge keep getting richer and richer and making policy decisions that are helping themselves. This data center thing's a great example. Who are the only people cheering it on? Big tech and big utilities and the politicians paid by those interests. Every voter across the state of Florida and the country is saying, don't do this, why are you doing this? And the answer is obvious, because the special interests own the candidates who make the decisions.

And Byron Donalds at first was like, that's why we need data centers in every community, in every city, in every town. We need it.

Liquid gold.

Liquid gold. He said, this is— you want to get rich? This is— this is the new one. You want to get rich, people in Florida? We understand your property taxes are super high. We understand we screwed you over. But now the data centers will help you with your utilities. And people are like, no, it's the opposite. And now he's like, oh, what do I do? What do I do? You know, what do you make of that moment?

Byron Donald's real plan to bring down property taxes is to devalue your house by building a hyperscale data center next door to you. That's exactly what his tax plan is. But no, here's what I'll tell you. And Byron Donald is doing something that Donald Trump is doing and every other conflicted politician is doing who's on all sides of this issue now. So big tech wants to come in and bring in the hyperscale data centers. Politicians like Byron Donalds have said, yeah, come on in, build on our pristine lands, give me the money in my campaign account and I'll let you do it. Voters said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we don't want hyperscale data centers. And so now the position of the White House and Byron Donalds has pivoted to the following: ratepayer protection. Ratepayer protection is what they're saying to make it look like they're pushing back. Now, understand what that means. That means that big tech and utilities have to pay their own way. They're allowed to plunder as long as they pay for the plundering. Well, voters are saying, "We don't want you to plunder." And by the way, paying your own way should have been the baseline.

That's not a big reform. That's just because they got caught subsidizing the development of these hyperscale data centers. Now their position is, "We're gonna make them pay their own way," and they're taking a victory lap as though it's some important consumer protection. No, it's not.

There's—

look who's cheering on The Trump-Donalds plan for hyperscale data centers. Who is cheering it on? Big tech and big utilities. Who's against it? Voters. And so it is a bold-faced lie when you hear Byron Donald say, I'm protecting the people of Florida. No, he's not. He's allowing big tech and hyperscale data centers to come into your backyard, plunder our environment, devalue your proper property, destabilize your community, and then pat himself on the back all the way on his road to what he thinks is going to be a November victory. He'll be proven wrong. But he thinks he's going to be insulated by the big money that's funded his campaign. Look, he's on the wrong side of the issue and he's now trying to clean it up, but he's cleaning it up through the lens of ratepayer protection. That's not what voters are asking for. They presume they're going to be protected with rates. What they want is data centers to get out of the state of Florida.

We've been seeing a lot of data showing just how dramatically independent voters are moving away from Trump and MAGA and even people who used to refer to themselves as MAGA. You know, some of the Trump base, non-college white people. We see a lot of this data. Trump's underwater, net negative 8 amongst cohorts like that. He's lost a lot of support amongst Latino groups. We see that in the polling data. You see the state, you know the state better than just about anybody. And I don't want to try to sell my audience hopium that things are changing. And regardless of even what you're seeing, we don't want— no one wants hope. It's a hard This is gonna be a hard race and everybody knows it, but I wanna know what you're seeing there that may be different or similar or something else when you travel the state at this moment, August 2026.

Look, there's still a MAGA element, but most people understand that MAGA's now a trail of broken promises. And Byron Donalds is trying to sell the state on something that is just not believable anymore, right? Prices have not come down. Your health insurance has not gotten easier. Gas prices are up. You're worried about your home. You're watching the Ukraine war continue and wars break out in new places. We're now in Iran through a war of choice. Everything that has been promised by MAGA is now a broken promise. And Byron Donalds is left to defend that. And so then voters turn and say, okay, what now? And this is where the problem for people like Byron Donalds comes in. You can't sell us on something that we know not to be true because we've caught up with the truth now. Donald Trump lied to us, and it's a trail of broken promises that Donald keeps trying to sell. And so then the opportunity for us comes in. Can we build a coalition around Democrats who are excited for the historic opportunity for change, but independents and Republicans who are saying, look, if you just promise me the basics, right?

Do the basics better. Get the economy working for more people. Try to stabilize the cost of housing and healthcare, improve our education system. Sure, invest in the environment and keep our communities safe. If you just focus on the basics and, oh, by the way, along the way, ensure everybody's rights are protected and their dignity celebrated regardless of the color of your skin, where you were born, who you love, or who you worship, there's enough there to build a coalition. I don't think this is a huge ideological swing election. It would be wrong to read it that way. It is an election littered with a trail of broken promises from Donald Trump and Byron Donalds.

Yeah, I think a return to values and principles and humanity and empathy.

That's right.

And the real qualities of this country. And that's why the other side wants the culture wars. They want division. They want to figure out ways to pit us against each other to cover it all up. Before we go, uh, where can people learn more about the campaign, David? And anything you want to say to our 7 million subscribers before we head out?

Yeah, look, we need your help. Davidjolly.com. And listen, it's not just about the future of Florida. Yes, we're going to create a new future in Florida, but understand, for, for people looking to reset our national politics, winning the Florida governorship restructures our national politics. It means we built a coalition that doesn't exist, leading with Democratic values but big enough to include independents and Republicans. It reshapes the map for the White House in 2028. It reshapes Democratic fortunes, if you will. And so it is important to, to have your help. We, we would win the race tonight, but the next 90 days are very choppy. Byron Donald's in the White House, wake up every day calling me a radical socialist communist. I say, folks, I'm not radical, I'm not even cool, but what we're building is a coalition of normalcy and decency where everybody knows the economy needs to do a little better, government can help, and everyone's rights should be protected. I think we're on the dawn of something new in American politics, and that's happening right here in the Florida governor's race.

David Jolly, thanks for joining us.

Good to be with you. Thank you.

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