We're heading for Florida and the "Gulf of America".

Trump signed an executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

It is no joke.

But it started that way.

The idea was first proposed some fifteen years ago by late-night host Stephen Colbert on his previous The Colbert Report.

Tomorrow we head down for a week’s break from New York’s unusually cold weather to our rental on Anna Maria Island which sits on the coast of the Gulf of MEXICO off of Sarasota.

We’ve been going there for a winter break the last few years.

Some friends have questioned our choice of Ron DeSantis’ Florida as a destination.

But we all live in that Florida now only without the beaches and grouper sandwiches.

Keeping up with Trump’s outrages is exhausting these days.

But keep up we must. People’s lives are at stake.

Back to Florida.

It seems DeSantis and his Republican legislature are at odds.

Some in the press have referred to it as “mommy and daddy fighting”.

Meaning the Florida GOP legislature hasn’t suddenly flipped. It’s a power thing.

DeSantis only has two more years left as governor.

He is pushing anti-immigrant legislation in support of Trump.

But the legislature seems in no rush.

Monday will kick off a special session in Tallahassee, where DeSantis is facing his biggest hurdle since ending his 2024 presidential campaign in trying to work with fellow Republicans. He wants legislators to pass measures on illegal immigration to support Trump’s executive orders and mass deportation plans, and to enact sweeping changes that could make ballot initiatives more difficult to pass.

But he had to force lawmakers to travel into town as GOP legislative leaders said the work could wait until the regular policymaking period in March. And once lawmakers get to Florida’s capital, it’s still not clear they’ll do what DeSantis wants — or instead opt to publicly push back against the governor.

It was only a little over a year ago that DeSantis was still contending for the Republican nomination for president.

The impasse is a remarkable turnaround for DeSantis, who won the 2018 race for governor with key support from Trump during the GOP primary. DeSantis became a rising conservative star during the Covid-19 pandemic and has used his time in the governor’s mansion to become arguably the most powerful governor in state history. He was able to swing legislators into action on everything from abortion to race and gender issues ahead of a presidential bid.

Now, with DeSantis in lockstep with Trump and his policy proposals, lawmakers risk seeming opposed to the president’s agenda on the heels of him winning Florida by 13 percentage points. One DeSantis ally in the Legislature, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said legislative leaders should have picked a different battle.

“If they wanted to assert their power over the governor, this was the dumbest issue to do it over: illegal immigration,” the person said, “because they can’t win, politically or policy-wise.”

How quickly the mighty can fall.