Trump’s about to be a Florida resident. In this swing state, he’ll need to show he gets us — all of us | Editorial

We welcome President Trump to South Florida, looking to make inroads in enemy territory — Baby Trump balloon and all — on Tuesday.

Trump is scheduled to hold a rally of supporters in Broward County, at the BB&T Center in Sunrise.

Broward remains a Democratic stronghold, with residents giving Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton, almost 67 percent of the vote in 2016. Still, Trump’s rally will draw thousands of supporters from South Florida and beyond. The president is not neglecting to solidify his base in this blue county — especially as winds of impeachment rage.

It should be a typical candidate campaign rally except in one regard: The president is about to be one of us. He has declared himself a Floridian — a South Floridian — having filed papers to change his place of residency from New York to the Sunshine State. His estate, Mar-a-Lago, is in Palm Beach County and a golf resort in Doral.

With his imminent relocation comes a great responsibility to help the state he’ll call home. We urge him to take it seriously. Unfortunately, he’s done a lot of damage. On Monday, Florida Democrats did a pre-rally tally:

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents the district where Trump will appear, said the president and his party’s dogged efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and, in Florida, Republicans’ refusal to expand Medicaid, have hurt too many Floridians. In fact, Republicans’ recalcitrance is killing the residents of this state. According to the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, almost 3,000 Floridians died between 2014 and 2017 because they didn’t have Medicaid coverage.

And while Obamacare is a repugnant concept to the president, he can’t fail to acknowledge that Miami-Dade has one of the highest enrollment rates in the country.

The number of Floridians who enrolled in Obamacare plans on the Healthcare.gov exchange and paid premiums increased from 1.46 million in 2018 to 1.67 million in February 2019, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. And as the cost of premiums stabilizes, that number could be exceeded by the time enrollment ends on Dec. 15. Many of those enrollees will be at Trump’s rally, no doubt. What’s he going to tell them?

In addition, there is no serious federal climate-change plan. Trump’s avid supporter, Gov. Ron DeSantis, should make clear to Trump that Greater Miami is Ground Zero for the effects of sea-level rise. Gun reforms are off the table, despite his meeting with survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in 2018. The level of income inequality in Greater Miami is a national embarrassment, yet Trump is behind ongoing measures to cut food stamps. His tax cuts have had little positive effect on the poor.

And, of course, Trump’s ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, Nicaraguans, El Salvadorans and other migrants whose homelands are still unstable and unable to deal with an untimely influx merely comported, sadly, with his vicious scapegoating of some immigrants in this country.

We know better than to expect the president to veer from what has been a winning formula for him — though not for some Republican candidates in the nation whom he recently publicly supported, and who lost. There could be a message in those losses — especially in this purple swing state — if only the president is astute enough to recognize them.

We are ever hopeful. But we have no illusions, either.

This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 2:52 PM.