Trump Faces New Trouble in Florida Ahead of the Midterms

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 these civics poll, Donald Trump's approval, negative 12 points there. 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**king self, tell him to get his head out of his ass, stop being a little too year old, and grow up and be a man. I don't get f**king 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 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, stakes 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. 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 alike. Well, we're not getting, we're not seeing the promises that he said would 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, those are the things that I would talk to him about. If you could talk directly to him right now, what would you say? If you could talk directly to President Trump right now, what would you tell him? I heard a lot of non-lady-like things in my day, try me. I would actually tell him to go f***ing self, tell him to get his head out of his ass, stop being a little too 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. You take a look too 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 in mass, 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, horrific. The Tampa Bay Times reporting the following, and this is a story I want to share with you. Yes, many 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." 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, remained in Bangui, the country's capital without passports, and no information about what will happen next. They stayed at the Mason 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." 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." This is part of the deportation to a third country process by the Trump regime. 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. Even the war criminals, they shouldn't be treated like this. These are people in 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 in the case of Haitians. If they go back to Haiti, they could die and they're being sent to Africa and elsewhere. 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's standard of English proficiency, you can't be part of, 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's doing things like this and it's pissing people off in Florida and throughout the country. Doug Burgham 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 triumphant 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 triumphant archers 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. But we are not an empire, we are not ruled by an monarch and Trump has not won some great war. Quite the contrary, Americans don't need this, if Trump wants to do this and build 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 Cotari Air Force 1 that the taxpayers had to ultimately pay for a billion dollars to renovate Cotari Air Force 1 which isn't even able to fly him and he had to hide in the catering container with Natalie because they can't fly internationally, 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 operatives 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, any event, I want to bring in retired Brigadier General Lila Gray retired Brigadier General Lila Gray is running in Florida's 13th Congressional District. She's running against Maggie Republican extremist Anna Paulina Luna, and I think this is going 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 their being sanctions and prohibitions on it to visit the Capitol and gave them tours and gave them the red carpet treatment. You know, also I think someone who's been very overtly antagonistic, as probably the nicest way I can 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. And it's not a political messaging point. I think it's frankly a nonpartisan point when you observe just the fact that our military is really just I feel like being treated awfully by this, you know, by this Trump regime, by the Defense Secretary Hegsiff 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, you know, speak about these issues. But 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 leagray.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. And that is 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, you know, if a soldier or a sailor or 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 accomplish, 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. And in that post, I recited some of the things that have been happening since the beginning of 2025, and actually is 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. And none of that was being adhered to. And then we're fact that we're also not promoting the next round of senior leaders, because of either the color of their skin or their gender. You know, we have such a vacuum now. I mean, that was part of the story that really prompted me to talk about the, about six things that you, or in 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. Talk about the international standing with our allies and partners part, because you're running against a Maggie Republican extremist, Anna Polina 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 DC. 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 weekends our alliances. 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. He said, "Well, you know, that's like aliens coming down from out of space and all these things." And I understand his sentiments to some extent, but when you speak to Canadian people, you're threatening with us with annexation and you're doing the things that Russia did to Ukraine. 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, and my opinion, if people can disagree with that opinion, and people who are actually trying to hurt the United States. 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. 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. It's 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 have to work with them, because this is a global situation in a variety of ways. But 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 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 sanctioned Russians. 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. She 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. 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 their some of the businesses are not back up and running. So, you know, with the cost of living crisis that everybody's experiencing across the globe. You know, 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. And 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 crushing them. And even though they have jobs, so then you're putting that pressure back on an entire elderly group of people that have long since retired and are winnowing down their retirement accounts. So this is, national security is tied to our local security as well. And I consider that financial security, economic security, because we don't have that, we're really not gonna be able to have a strong national security as well. - I think it's a great point because people like Trump and Hegsith and Anna Polina Luna and other enablers did a foreign policy of trade war against the world, tariff everyone and everything and that that was gonna make us riches 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. So with all of that as background though, 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 haven't 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? Polina, Luna, Trump stuff? Or are you personally doing worse? I think the answer is worse. But then how do you make the next step of saying, why are we gonna go back to that? 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 as I mentioned the hurricane, so across the board people are experiencing cost-aliving crisis across the United States. And not everyone's feeling it the same way, depends on where you are on the spectrum of your own personal economics and your personal finance. But the, in essence for our district, because we are a coastal economy, and I mentioned the hurricanes, our crisis, our cost-aliving crisis is exacerbated because of the cost of insurances, both from the housing insurance, flood insurance, and even believe it or not, car insurance. And then of course the healthcare crisis, the healthcare 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 are the constant movement of the cost to gas and groceries and other essentials that we find ourselves if you're taking your kids to school. I've, you know, parents are telling me the cost of school supplies have gone up significantly. And I've also shared recently that, 'cause I learned that Floridians have spent $4 billion more on gas since the start of this war. And it's only been six months, $4 billion with a B, that's pretty dramatic. And then per household, it's been about $1,200 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 our children or elderly parents like many of my colleagues and neighbors do. And 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 come 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. And 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 be 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, you know, a common sense approach to what we should be doing governing this nation. And it goes in it, you're seeing the impact of that. You know, when you don't bring common sense problem solving to the issues that we're facing, you see these dramatic splits between our international and 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. If 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 and go back to the war with Iran. You know, 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 secured the straight of war moves first. But six months later, then, you know, right after we get into the real heart of the war with Iran, we then expect our partners and allies to come in and start doing things within the straight or providing support when we never even consulted them before we decided to go to war. You know, 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. And so it's really clear that these decisions are being made in a vacuum and not to the benefit of the American people. - Right, I mean, if you purge your top most experienced generals, people like Randy George and Donnie you and the former chairman of the Joint Chief, CQ Brown Jr. and I could go through the list and there's so many top respected people, you know, it'd be like the basketball team getting rid of their starting lineup and then the three people on their bench and then putting the other people in to play against another professional team while we underestimate them. There's still the other sides putting their top people in and their most experienced and their most war hardened and PhDs and they're going against, you know, people who are part of a system in a process, but not the people who we had who would have said, you know what you gotta do? They're gonna strike by rain. We should make sure our main logistical hub is ready to go 'cause if you don't have the logistical hub, you're not gonna bring the food and the mail and the supplies to the Lincoln and to the Ford and then we're gonna be in Diego Garcia and the broader point is you and I am sure you can talk about this forever and maybe we should one day just really geek out on critical military logistics and things like that. But I think the broader point and we'll end with this is, this is political season where people talk about messaging and this and that and I always like to say, I think you're kind of missing the point of this moment. It's a little bit different than just the messaging and will people move two points this way or two points that way? I like to say the suffering is real out there and people are struggling and they want a fighter and they want someone who exudes empathy and isn't bullying and restores what they once thought of has what America meant here and abroad. It's not just like Democrat and Republican and this and that, it's what makes your candidacy intriguing for me because I feel like you're reluctantly, I'm doing this 'cause I'm a commander, I'm not a lifelong politician and I need to, I need to show, I need to bring my leadership to bear in this district 'cause that's what's needed now. So that's my read on it but I wanna give you the final word to talk to our audience of nearly seven million subscribers here. - Thank you again for having me Ben, this is real and when you talk to a 68 year old man like I did at the Largo Evening Market a few weeks ago and he had a table of necklaces that he had made and he was reading his book while he was just sitting there waiting for people to come by. And I could tell, he was kind of pulled back a little bit so but I asked him, I said hi, I'm Lila Gray, I'm running for Congress, I hope it's okay, I'm introducing myself and he's like sure, that sounds great. And I asked him, I said would you share with me, can you share with me what's going on in your life? And I kid you not Ben, he paused and he was starting to get choked up and I could see tears, welling in his eyes and he said I can't survive on my social security and I'm concerned about cuts to my social security. And he's already not surviving and then he's being the threat of losing even more. And I feel this is a personal mission. I had the chance to grow up in an America with very humble beginnings experiencing things that a lot of people do, food stamps, you know. working multiple jobs. I went off to college. I received a Pell Grant. I worked two jobs there. And then I found ROTC or ROTC found me. And that really changed the trajectory of my life. So I truly feel like I am the product of the American dream. But those barriers to that are too high and too expensive right now. I mean, when you hear about the average age of the first time home buyer being 40 years old, when my husband bought his first place at 27, you know. You know something's upside down. And so I feel it's a personal mission for me to listen to what's going on and to represent the people. There's no need for me to go to Washington and have another career. I've had a great career. But there is a need for me to leave to solve these problems. And that's what we're lacking. We're lacking people in Washington, like Congresswoman Luna, who doesn't understand service over self that certainly has not displayed that for decades, like I have done. And certainly hasn't led to actually problem solving. Instead has been more of a problem maker. You know, in the military, if you talk to some military folks, we have the term we call it like, are you a show horse or a workhorse? And I've always been a workhorse. And you know, in the course of my career, both in the army and out of the army, just like I mentioned before, it's about listening first, then learning about the issues and then leading to solve that. And that's what we're missing in Congress because they're busy, you know, the people like Luna are busy putting herself above others. She's not listening to the people in this district. She's not helping them have a better life. And they aren't truly suffering. And I want to do, and I will do something about it. Yes, you put in your post, Pete Hegsith. We all know that type. The most vocal and least qualified person in the room, just blabbering and imposing what they view as it has to, without listening and understanding and bringing in experts. And can I view this in a very nonpartisan, non-political way? But anyway, thank you so much for joining us. Remind us one more time, where can people learn more about the campaign? LilaGray.com. Thank you for pointing that out. Check that out, everybody. All right, hit subscribe. Let's get to that 7 million subscriber month. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.