On Friday, President Trump stated that he would consider appointing Ron DeSantis to a cabinet position next year after the Florida governor’s current term expires. “Well, I like him a lot,” Trump told a reporter in explaining why he’s considering DeSantis for a top job.
DeSantis was once one of Trump’s rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential
nomination, but he finished a distant second in the Iowa caucuses and his campaign soon lost momentum. The Florida governor later endorsed Trump and now works closely with the administration on key priorities, including its crackdown on illegal immigration, the New York Post reported.
Earlier this month, DeSantis further praised Trump’s executive action that aimed to “restore order, fairness, and stability” in college athletics. The action allows student-athletes to transfer to a different school only once without facing the penalty of sitting out a season.
Meanwhile, Florida Republican lawmakers on Wednesday moved quickly to approve a new congressional map submitted by Ron DeSantis just two days earlier, even as legislators were still reviewing the Supreme Court’s Wednesday ruling. The state Senate briefly delayed proceedings to study the decision, with several senators seen reading it on their laptops.
The map was ultimately approved largely along party lines, though a small number of Republican state senators voted against it. Democrats argued the map was unlawful because it conflicted with Florida’s voter-approved anti-gerrymandering standards, while some Republicans said they were persuaded by legal arguments from DeSantis attorneys that those requirements no longer had to be followed, Politico reported.
“I don’t think we should do gerrymandering on the basis of political partisanship, and I don’t think there’s evidence this map does this,” countered state Sen. Don Gaetz, a Crestview Republican and one of the sponsors, Politico noted.
Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democratic contender for the U.S. Senate from Jacksonville, interrupted the voting by yelling into a pink megaphone that the map “was out of order.”
DeSantis has previously stated that if the Supreme Court ruled as he anticipated, which is what happened, the Legislature would be “forced” to redesign the state’s map.
“Called this one months ago,” the governor posted on social media. “The
decision implicates a district in FL — the legal infirmities of which have been corrected in the newly-drawn (and soon to be enacted) map.”
Florida becomes the latest state to redistrict its congressional delegation in the middle of the decade, following red states such as Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri.
The Supreme Court’s decision stemmed from lower courts ordering Louisiana to create a second majority-black congressional district in 2024 to comply with Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which bars states from diluting minority voting strength.
The Trump administration and state officials challenged the revised map, arguing it amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in violation of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.
About one-third of Louisiana’s residents are African-American, and the state’s only two Democratic lawmakers in Congress (compared to four House Republicans) were elected from majority-black districts.
The justices initially addressed the Louisiana map case during the 2024-25 term. In an unusual move, they ordered both sides to restate their arguments to consider the implications of both the 14th and 15th Amendments. The 15th Amendment, in particular, prohibits states from denying citizens equal protection under the law or restricting their rights based on race.
The ruling carries immense weight, with two prominent voting rights organizations noting earlier that the removal or restriction of Section 2 will likely empower Republican-led legislatures to change the boundaries of as many as 19 congressional districts to their advantage, in order to comply with the court.
