{"id":146693,"date":"2026-02-06T23:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146693\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:38:14","slug":"what-floridas-candidates-for-governor-said-about-trumps-truth-social-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146693\/","title":{"rendered":"What Florida\u2019s candidates for governor said about Trump\u2019s Truth Social post"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump continued to dominate Florida\u2019s gubernatorial race as candidates on Friday considered responses to a video posted<\/a> onthe president\u2019s Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as apes.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s post was deleted Friday and the White House blamed a staffer following widespread backlash, including from some Republicans, over what many described as unmistakable racist imagery of the nation\u2019s first Black president and first lady.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s endorsed candidate in the 2026 Florida governor\u2019s race, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, is Black. A senior staffer for Donalds\u2019 campaign told the Tampa Bay Times on Friday without elaborating that \u201cTeam Byron Donalds had called the White House and learned that a staffer had let POTUS down.\u201d (POTUS stands for president of the United States.)<\/p>\n

One ofDonalds\u2019 Republican opponents, James Fishback,who is white, criticized that response from Donalds\u2019 camp, telling the Times it was distracting from the real issues that affect Floridians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a superficial obsession with race,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n

In his bid to overcome Donalds\u2019 polling and financial advantage in the primary, Fishback hasn\u2019t been shyabout talking about race, courting racially charged language and admirers like Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist whom he won\u2019t disavow. Fishback doesn\u2019t apologize for using terms like \u201ctoken Black\u201d to describe Donalds\u2019 ascension to Congress.<\/p>\n

Fishback said the video doesn\u2019t merit outrage because the full video depicts former President Joe Biden as a monkey, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sideshow,\u201d Fishback said. \u201cWhile Byron Donalds is using his time and energy to call the White House about a cartoon video, I\u2019m talking to voters concerned about affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic candidate for governor David Jolly condemned the video, calling it \u201cvile.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re holding a mirror up to ourselves right now,\u201d Jolly, who is white, said in a statement Friday. \u201cForget about policy \u2014 this is about who we are as a people, and it\u2019s terrifying what the answer most days seems to be.”<\/p>\n

In January, Jolly urged the other gubernatorial candidates to denounce Fishback for aiming slurs at Donalds. On Friday, Jolly\u2019s campaign was asked what he thought about Donalds\u2019 response so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny candidate asking to lead the state should be swift and forthright in their condemnation,\u201d Jolly wrote in a statement. \u201cByron\u2019s making a process argument because he lacks the courage to condemn racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign for the other high-profile Black candidate running for governor, Democrat Jerry Demings, couldn\u2019t be reached. Two other Republican candidates, Paul Renner and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, didn\u2019t return requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump continued to dominate Florida\u2019s gubernatorial race as candidates on Friday considered responses to a video posted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[445,1813,409,28,3291,30,29,71005,28909,71006,53789,2573,18383,71007,9102],"class_list":{"0":"post-146693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-byron-donalds","9":"tag-david-jolly","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-governor","13":"tag-florida-headlines","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-gubernatorial-candidates","16":"tag-gubernatorial-race","17":"tag-michelle-obama","18":"tag-president-barack-obama","19":"tag-president-joe-biden","20":"tag-republican-candidates","21":"tag-token-black","22":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}