What did Donald Trump do today?

He freaked out about the consequences of his unpopularity.

In an emotional rant this morning posted to his boutique social media website, Trump angrily denounced the media for reporting on how Byron Donalds, Florida's Republican nominee for governor, has scrubbed his website of references to Trump. 

As the Daily Beast and other publications have noted, this simply isn't true—about Donalds, or other Republicans running away from Trump. 
  

Trump also insisted that he was "more popular in Florida today, even more than I was in the last Record Breaking Election!"

Again, whatever Trump may believe, the reality is exactly the opposite. Trump won Florida by 13 points in 2024, but his net approval rating in recent polls is minus 10, minus 16, or minus 21 points. The most recent AP-NORC poll shows Trump losing popularity in Florida faster than any other state, which is saying something, considering that he only has an approval rating above 50% in two states (Oklahoma and West Virginia).

The problem that Byron Donalds is facing—and is trying to solve by distancing himself from Trump—isn't that Floridians don't like him, or that they won't vote for Republicans. Florida hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 1994. But Trump's overtly racist approach to immigration enforcement, his coddling of abusive dictators in Central and South America, and his real or threatened actions against the people of Venezuela and Cuba are deeply unpopular with the large Latino voting base in the state. That's why Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican representing a normally safe Republican seat in suburban Miami, released an ad directly criticizing Trump earlier this month.
 

After working through his feelings about Donalds—which included a threat about his political future if the nominee "dropped" Trump—he attended the first half of the Texas vs. Tennessee college football game. As expected, he was loudly booed by the Tennessee Volunteers' home crowd.

Why does this matter?

• Past about age six, declaring yourself popular doesn't make it so. 

• A smarter president would understand he's better off letting members of his party create some distance. 

• A better president wouldn't be this historically unpopular with voters in the first place.