December 17, 2025 • 11 mins
A look back on Florida's biggest political stories of 2025 and what to watch for in 2026. Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch joins us to recap the year and gives his take on the Susie Wiles piece in Vanity Fair.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to the hotline for one final time here
in twenty twenty five and talk to the publisher of
Florida Politics. Peter Shorsch is back with us. You can
find all of his work and all of his teams
reporting at Florida politics dot com. So, Peter, since this
will be the last time we talk in this year,
I wanted to take a second and take a look
(00:21):
back at some of the big storylines that you think
really stood out and really mattered here in Florida over
the course of the past twelve months.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, not to make it about me, but I think
about my calendar, and I think about we just got
back from the White House Christmas Party, but we basically
started the year at the inauguration and the Trump inauguration,
And what was so significant about that was we saw
Florida on display there. And I think that'll basically be
(00:49):
the biggest storyline from from a Florida Politics perspective, is
Florida going national in a way that we haven't seen
since basically Texas kind of took over DC.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Under George Bush.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
And so you know, I remember being at that event
and Rick Scott had the Sunshine Ball there and Matt
Gates and Pam Bondi were named Attorney General Marco Rubio
and as we just documented in our Influence magazine, the
cover was the Sunshine State Conquers d C. And when
you go and look at not just the big names
(01:25):
that are in DC, but the second third four tiers,
the ambassadors, the deputy chiefs of staff like I didn't
even remember, but there's a state lawmaker that is, you know,
the chief of staff of the Department of Education, a
former Florida state lawmaker. And so the Floridification of d
C is probably my biggest storyline. And then I would
(01:46):
say a second storyline is just the internise in battle
between the Florida GOP with Rohnda Santis on one side
the Florida House and the Trump Republicans on the other
side the Florida Senate somewhere in between.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
We saw this play out at all levels.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We saw a playout beginning with an early legislation special
session on immigration. We saw it through the legislative session.
We saw it to the extended session because of the
failed budget deal or because of the failure to get
a budget done on time. We saw this play out
in the kind of the early stages of the Florida
(02:25):
GOP primary with Byron Donald on one side and Jay
Collins slash Casey DeSantis, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
On the other side.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
We saw this playout in the various machinations of the
primaries with for Attorney General, for Agriculture Commissioner CFO, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So the divide between.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What's kind of left of the DeSantis Republican Party wing
and the Trump wing is certainly I think the second
big story. And then we always got to end on
a controversy, and that controversy is Hope Florida, yep. And
that's played out. It still is as of right now
as we're making this last phone call with each other.
(03:05):
We don't know if we are at the if we
are at the beginning of the end, the end of
the beginning.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
We don't know this is going to extend into twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We're waiting on a grand jury report, as was documented
by The Times, Timpa Bay Times and the Miami Herald.
We've seen that they that the Santus administration basically took
thirty six million dollars that was earmarked for child welfare
and other, you know, other government services and used it
to defeat amendments for three and four in twenty twenty four.
(03:36):
So off the top of my head, those are the
three big storylines. As we lay on the plane on
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
We're joined by the publisher of Florida Politics, Peter Shorsch.
And on that last point, you know, that had a
big impact on what we're going to see next year,
the Hope Florida scandal, because going into twenty twenty five,
there was a lot of talk that perhaps Casey to
say this would be the one to challenge Byron Donald's
(04:03):
in that Republican primary for governor, and because of how
things unfolded with Hope Florida, that ended up not happening,
and now it looks like Donald's has a pretty clear
path to the nomination. So there was a poll that
came out on Monday, and it basically has shown what
(04:23):
we've seen all along that donald is somewhere in the
low forties and everybody else is in single digits. Day
Collins spent had some money spent for him, and so
he's now I think I think it was like eight
or nine percent. That leaves a big number of unsure voters.
I think you can look at it two ways. Number One,
Byron Donalds has to seal the deal. He's gonna have
(04:45):
to start spending some of that enormous money that he's raised.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And start advertising. I think people forget that he is
a first time cannate. This isn't Trump, this isn't Charlie Christ,
this isn't Jeb Bush. You know, this is a a
congressman that a lot of people. You know, the two
of four voters, the one of four voters they might
not know who Byron Donalds is of the people who
are sure that are who are sure? Who are they
(05:12):
are voting for? Eighty percent of those voters are going
to Donald's and the rest are going to a number
of other candidates. But it's that unsure number that will
you know, It'll be interesting. Will Casey DeSantis see an
opening there? Or will Byron Donalds launch some paid media
in January and February and finally get over the like
(05:33):
the fifty percent threshold. I think he wants to get to.
He wants to see a poll that says he is
winning with fifty percent as soon as possible in the
early part of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And I would bet on the ladder if I were
a betting man. And since we're looking ahead already to
twenty twenty six, and again we're joined by the publisher
of Florida Politics, Peter Shorsch, what will you be watching
for in the new year.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You know, let's go the opposite way and say, I'll
be looking to see if the green shoots that we
saw in Miami and Orlando and a couple of state
legislative seats the week before last, if the Democrats have
any life left in them. A writer that I like,
Dave Trotter, He's done some good statistical analysis, is like,
(06:20):
if the Democrats are ever going to come back Miami,
is how they will do it. They will have to
regain the Hispanic voters that they've lost over the last decade,
especially to Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
It's a long, long, long road.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
They will have to try and pick up a few seats,
maybe in the state legislature. You know, I talked to
Ryan Ticon, the pollster, and he and I both know
come to the same conclusion right now that independent voters
are going against the Republicans almost two to one across
the country that spreads to Florida.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Even some of these safe seats become unsafe. So that's
one thing.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And I'd say the second part you got to keep
an eye on is what happens with redistricting. Do they
redraw the congressional map in a way where there is
no Democrats left in the congressional delegation at the end
of the day. That will be that's gonna be, Like
to the insiders, I think that's gonna be the probably
the biggest fight of the first half of the year.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So Peter, President Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, she
does this extensive interview with Vanity Fair. Lots to unpack
from it, But as someone who knows Susie like you do,
what do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, have you know Susie Wilds This is Susie Wiles,
this is you know, she speaks true to power. She
is the White House chief of staff because you know,
a couple of years ago, she stood up to Donald
Trump and said, hey, if you want, if you want
somebody that's always going to give you what you want
to hear, I'm not your girl, and she literally walked out.
And that was the last time that Donald Trump ever
(07:51):
yelled at her, at least that we know. Of she
did say a bunch of things. She said, you know,
Donald Trump's got the personality of an alcoholic and outside personality.
She said Pam Bonding Whift on the early stages of
the Epstein files. She said Jade Vance as a conspiracy theorist.
And she said that Elon Musk is odd. And you
(08:12):
know what, I don't know that she's wrong about any
of this. And it goes back to the idea that
a gaff is just speaking the truth out loud. And
so I actually messaged Susie and I said, I don't
know why you're backing off these comments.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
This is this is who you are now.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I will say, you know, if she's upset about this article,
and if the Trump administration and you can see it
in their response on social media, where almost every member
of the cabinet has responded in support of Susie Wilds
she shouldn't have let Vanity Fair in the house in
the first place.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
She spoke to them.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I think eleven times they detailed how they spoke to her.
She was doing laundry, they were having brunch. I mean,
there isn't it. I mean it was like unfettered access
to her. Uh, And so I'm glad the President spoke.
I was a little worried for her for a moment.
President came and uh stood by her. But this is again,
this is Susie Wiles to a t. This is why
(09:13):
she's really she is the goat of Florida politics. If
I had one criticism, I would say, damn. Those pictures
of her and the rest of the team were just unflattering.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
They were they were stark.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They you know, Susie looks like she's kind of caught
as a deer in the headlights. My friend James Blair, uh,
kind of creepy in the in the in the background.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I didn't think.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I don't know why they left the I don't know
why they love Vanity Fair, their reporters or their photographers
in the building unless they knew, unless they didn't suspect
this was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
But hey, you know what this is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You know you don't suspect suspect that the leopard's going
to eat your face, then don't invite the leopard into
your house.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And and real quick, that's the one thing. And to
be honest with you, I didn't think the piece was
that bad. I thought it was interesting, and I thought,
like you said, a lot of it kind of made sense.
But Susie Wats is somebody who generally is in the background,
Why would she want herself in the forefront like this.
I haven't figured that out. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I will say, like we've been talking to you know,
the some of us inside have been talking about it.
We're like, she doesn't do anything uncalculated. There are some
messages that she is sending, like the Pambondi on the
on the Epstein files, she was sending a message, I
think to Pambondi, and I think a lot of that
was so I would read between the lines on that
(10:40):
interview and try and figure out who is who and
what message is.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Uh, it's Susie Wilds trying to say, That's what I
think too. The publisher of Florida Politics, Peter shuresh with
us for the final time in twenty twenty five. Again.
You can find all of his work and all of
his team's fantastic reporting at Florida politics dot com. Peter,
it's been a pleasure breaking everything down with you all
year long and looking forward to another busy and exciting
(11:06):
year of Florida politics in twenty twenty six, Brian.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
As I always do at this time, I wish you
happy new Year. But I'm so grateful for you having
me on each week. People come up to me all
the time and they say, hey, I heard. They don't
even know who I am, but they listen to your show.
People call me after the appearances and want to argue
politics with me, and so I'm very grateful to you
for the platform.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
A happy new Year to you and yours for twenty
twenty six, we'll same to you and I pay those people,
so just there, you know, Peter Shorsh with us. Peter,
have a great one, Thanks so much. Thanks man,
Let's go to the hotline for one final time here
in twenty twenty five and talk to the publisher of
Florida Politics. Peter Shorsch is back with us. You can
find all of his work and all of his teams
reporting at Florida politics dot com. So, Peter, since this
will be the last time we talk in this year,
I wanted to take a second and take a look
(00:21):
back at some of the big storylines that you think
really stood out and really mattered here in Florida over
the course of the past twelve months.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, not to make it about me, but I think
about my calendar, and I think about we just got
back from the White House Christmas Party, but we basically
started the year at the inauguration and the Trump inauguration,
And what was so significant about that was we saw
Florida on display there. And I think that'll basically be
(00:49):
the biggest storyline from from a Florida Politics perspective, is
Florida going national in a way that we haven't seen
since basically Texas kind of took over DC.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Under George Bush.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
And so you know, I remember being at that event
and Rick Scott had the Sunshine Ball there and Matt
Gates and Pam Bondi were named Attorney General Marco Rubio
and as we just documented in our Influence magazine, the
cover was the Sunshine State Conquers d C. And when
you go and look at not just the big names
(01:25):
that are in DC, but the second third four tiers,
the ambassadors, the deputy chiefs of staff like I didn't
even remember, but there's a state lawmaker that is, you know,
the chief of staff of the Department of Education, a
former Florida state lawmaker. And so the Floridification of d
C is probably my biggest storyline. And then I would
(01:46):
say a second storyline is just the internise in battle
between the Florida GOP with Rohnda Santis on one side
the Florida House and the Trump Republicans on the other
side the Florida Senate somewhere in between.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
We saw this play out at all levels.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We saw a playout beginning with an early legislation special
session on immigration. We saw it through the legislative session.
We saw it to the extended session because of the
failed budget deal or because of the failure to get
a budget done on time. We saw this play out
in the kind of the early stages of the Florida
(02:25):
GOP primary with Byron Donald on one side and Jay
Collins slash Casey DeSantis, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
On the other side.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
We saw this playout in the various machinations of the
primaries with for Attorney General, for Agriculture Commissioner CFO, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So the divide between.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What's kind of left of the DeSantis Republican Party wing
and the Trump wing is certainly I think the second
big story. And then we always got to end on
a controversy, and that controversy is Hope Florida, yep. And
that's played out. It still is as of right now
as we're making this last phone call with each other.
(03:05):
We don't know if we are at the if we
are at the beginning of the end, the end of
the beginning.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
We don't know this is going to extend into twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We're waiting on a grand jury report, as was documented
by The Times, Timpa Bay Times and the Miami Herald.
We've seen that they that the Santus administration basically took
thirty six million dollars that was earmarked for child welfare
and other, you know, other government services and used it
to defeat amendments for three and four in twenty twenty four.
(03:36):
So off the top of my head, those are the
three big storylines. As we lay on the plane on
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
We're joined by the publisher of Florida Politics, Peter Shorsch.
And on that last point, you know, that had a
big impact on what we're going to see next year,
the Hope Florida scandal, because going into twenty twenty five,
there was a lot of talk that perhaps Casey to
say this would be the one to challenge Byron Donald's
(04:03):
in that Republican primary for governor, and because of how
things unfolded with Hope Florida, that ended up not happening,
and now it looks like Donald's has a pretty clear
path to the nomination. So there was a poll that
came out on Monday, and it basically has shown what
(04:23):
we've seen all along that donald is somewhere in the
low forties and everybody else is in single digits. Day
Collins spent had some money spent for him, and so
he's now I think I think it was like eight
or nine percent. That leaves a big number of unsure voters.
I think you can look at it two ways. Number One,
Byron Donalds has to seal the deal. He's gonna have
(04:45):
to start spending some of that enormous money that he's raised.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And start advertising. I think people forget that he is
a first time cannate. This isn't Trump, this isn't Charlie Christ,
this isn't Jeb Bush. You know, this is a a
congressman that a lot of people. You know, the two
of four voters, the one of four voters they might
not know who Byron Donalds is of the people who
are sure that are who are sure? Who are they
(05:12):
are voting for? Eighty percent of those voters are going
to Donald's and the rest are going to a number
of other candidates. But it's that unsure number that will
you know, It'll be interesting. Will Casey DeSantis see an
opening there? Or will Byron Donalds launch some paid media
in January and February and finally get over the like
(05:33):
the fifty percent threshold. I think he wants to get to.
He wants to see a poll that says he is
winning with fifty percent as soon as possible in the
early part of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And I would bet on the ladder if I were
a betting man. And since we're looking ahead already to
twenty twenty six, and again we're joined by the publisher
of Florida Politics, Peter Shorsch, what will you be watching
for in the new year.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You know, let's go the opposite way and say, I'll
be looking to see if the green shoots that we
saw in Miami and Orlando and a couple of state
legislative seats the week before last, if the Democrats have
any life left in them. A writer that I like,
Dave Trotter, He's done some good statistical analysis, is like,
(06:20):
if the Democrats are ever going to come back Miami,
is how they will do it. They will have to
regain the Hispanic voters that they've lost over the last decade,
especially to Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
It's a long, long, long road.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
They will have to try and pick up a few seats,
maybe in the state legislature. You know, I talked to
Ryan Ticon, the pollster, and he and I both know
come to the same conclusion right now that independent voters
are going against the Republicans almost two to one across
the country that spreads to Florida.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Even some of these safe seats become unsafe. So that's
one thing.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And I'd say the second part you got to keep
an eye on is what happens with redistricting. Do they
redraw the congressional map in a way where there is
no Democrats left in the congressional delegation at the end
of the day. That will be that's gonna be, Like
to the insiders, I think that's gonna be the probably
the biggest fight of the first half of the year.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So Peter, President Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, she
does this extensive interview with Vanity Fair. Lots to unpack
from it, But as someone who knows Susie like you do,
what do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, have you know Susie Wilds This is Susie Wiles,
this is you know, she speaks true to power. She
is the White House chief of staff because you know,
a couple of years ago, she stood up to Donald
Trump and said, hey, if you want, if you want
somebody that's always going to give you what you want
to hear, I'm not your girl, and she literally walked out.
And that was the last time that Donald Trump ever
(07:51):
yelled at her, at least that we know. Of she
did say a bunch of things. She said, you know,
Donald Trump's got the personality of an alcoholic and outside personality.
She said Pam Bonding Whift on the early stages of
the Epstein files. She said Jade Vance as a conspiracy theorist.
And she said that Elon Musk is odd. And you
(08:12):
know what, I don't know that she's wrong about any
of this. And it goes back to the idea that
a gaff is just speaking the truth out loud. And
so I actually messaged Susie and I said, I don't
know why you're backing off these comments.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
This is this is who you are now.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I will say, you know, if she's upset about this article,
and if the Trump administration and you can see it
in their response on social media, where almost every member
of the cabinet has responded in support of Susie Wilds
she shouldn't have let Vanity Fair in the house in
the first place.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
She spoke to them.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I think eleven times they detailed how they spoke to her.
She was doing laundry, they were having brunch. I mean,
there isn't it. I mean it was like unfettered access
to her. Uh, And so I'm glad the President spoke.
I was a little worried for her for a moment.
President came and uh stood by her. But this is again,
this is Susie Wiles to a t. This is why
(09:13):
she's really she is the goat of Florida politics. If
I had one criticism, I would say, damn. Those pictures
of her and the rest of the team were just unflattering.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
They were they were stark.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They you know, Susie looks like she's kind of caught
as a deer in the headlights. My friend James Blair, uh,
kind of creepy in the in the in the background.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I didn't think.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I don't know why they left the I don't know
why they love Vanity Fair, their reporters or their photographers
in the building unless they knew, unless they didn't suspect
this was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
But hey, you know what this is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You know you don't suspect suspect that the leopard's going
to eat your face, then don't invite the leopard into
your house.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And and real quick, that's the one thing. And to
be honest with you, I didn't think the piece was
that bad. I thought it was interesting, and I thought,
like you said, a lot of it kind of made sense.
But Susie Wats is somebody who generally is in the background,
Why would she want herself in the forefront like this.
I haven't figured that out. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I will say, like we've been talking to you know,
the some of us inside have been talking about it.
We're like, she doesn't do anything uncalculated. There are some
messages that she is sending, like the Pambondi on the
on the Epstein files, she was sending a message, I
think to Pambondi, and I think a lot of that
was so I would read between the lines on that
(10:40):
interview and try and figure out who is who and
what message is.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Uh, it's Susie Wilds trying to say, That's what I
think too. The publisher of Florida Politics, Peter shuresh with
us for the final time in twenty twenty five. Again.
You can find all of his work and all of
his team's fantastic reporting at Florida politics dot com. Peter,
it's been a pleasure breaking everything down with you all
year long and looking forward to another busy and exciting
(11:06):
year of Florida politics in twenty twenty six, Brian.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
As I always do at this time, I wish you
happy new Year. But I'm so grateful for you having
me on each week. People come up to me all
the time and they say, hey, I heard. They don't
even know who I am, but they listen to your show.
People call me after the appearances and want to argue
politics with me, and so I'm very grateful to you
for the platform.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
A happy new Year to you and yours for twenty
twenty six, we'll same to you and I pay those people,
so just there, you know, Peter Shorsh with us. Peter,
have a great one, Thanks so much. Thanks man,
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