WIPING THE SLATE CLEAN

Top MAGA Ally Delivers Jaw-Dropping Snub to Trump in Home State

The president’s pick for governor in Florida is giving himself a clean slate.

Top Donald Trump ally Byron Donalds has revamped his campaign website to scrub any clues of his support for the president from the homepage.

The ultra-MAGA congressman who is running for governor in Trump’s adopted home state of Florida once had “Trump-endorsed” prominently displayed multiple times at the top of his website.

However, the new version of the Republican candidate’s campaign page doesn’t mention the president at all. There are also noticeably fewer photos of Donalds with the increasingly unpopular president.

Trump backed Donalds for governor early last year, but the Florida congressman is just the latest in a series of GOP candidates to wipe mentions of Trump from their websites.

A review of Donalds’ old website showed a “Support Trump Endorsed Byron Donalds” banner at the top of the page, as well as “TRUMP-ENDORSED Proven Conservative Fighter,” right when visitors go to the page.

Slightly further down, it featured a prominent image of Donalds and his wife standing with Trump, with the two men giving a smiling thumbs-up.

There was also a quote attributed to the president that read: “Byron Donalds would be a TRULY GREAT and POWERFUL Governor for Florida and, should he run, will have my complete and total endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!”

But the new version of Donalds’ website homepage now reads “Byron Donalds for Governor” with the words “Fighting to defend the Florida dream.” Trump does not appear anywhere on the homepage.

Instead, a mention of the president appears only when a visitor clicks to the Meet Byron Donalds page, where it briefly calls him the “Trump-endorsed candidate” and notes that he served as a top Trump surrogate in 2024.

The Donate page also includes an image of Donalds standing next to the president seated at a desk, and it links to a WinRed account touting his MAGA credentials.

The old website also showed Trump’s image on the Issues page, where it touted, “Byron is committed to implementing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again.”

It declared under Immigration: “Byron stands with President Trump to secure the border, keep our families and communities safe, end taxpayer handouts to illegals, and stop drugs from pouring into our country.” The new version doesn’t have an individual Immigration subsection.

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Donalds has long been a vocal defender of the president, repeatedly appearing on conservative networks to promote Trump policies. Earlier this month, he did attend the Trump-centric Republican midterm convention in Dallas, where he continued to praise the president.

The Daily Beast asked the Donalds campaign about the move behind his website revamp and whether the candidate was trying to downplay his ties to Trump.

“Our campaign website reflects Byron’s focus on the issues that matter most to Floridians — affordability, insurance costs, and government transparency,” said campaign communications director Gates McGavick in a statement. “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.”

McGavick also called the reporting on Donalds’ website “FAKE NEWS” and took a swipe at his Democratic opponent David Jolly as “all MSNBC talking points and zero substance.”

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It comes as Trump’s approval is deep underwater across the country.

In Florida, Donalds has had an edge in the polls over Jolly, but the race appears to be tightening. The latest survey by St. Pete Polls showed the race in a dead heat, with Donalds less than a point ahead.

Multiple other Republicans in tough races, including several GOP House members across the country, have recently scrubbed Trump references and images from their websites.

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Sarah Ewall-WicePolitical Reporter

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