Byron Donalds Tries to Distance Himself From Trump After Having His Lips Permanently Stitched to His Big Orange Ass for Years

Byron Donalds Scrubs Trump From Florida Governor Campaign Website After Building His Political Brand Around the President

Florida Republican gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds has dramatically reduced President Donald Trump’s presence on his campaign website, removing at least eight references to the president from the homepage and shifting the centerpiece of his policy platform from “Enact the Trump Agenda” to affordability as Florida moves toward the November general election.

The changes, documented through website tracking service Visualping and reported by multiple news organizations, represent a substantial change in presentation for a campaign that spent much of the Republican primary prominently advertising Trump’s endorsement. Donalds remains endorsed by Trump, has not repudiated the president and has not announced a political break with him. His campaign says the redesigned website reflects a greater emphasis on Florida issues, including affordability, insurance costs and government transparency.

That distinction is important. The available evidence establishes that Donalds removed prominent Trump branding and Trump-centered policy language from his campaign website. Characterizing those changes as an intentional attempt to distance himself from Trump is an interpretation advanced by news organizations, Democrats and other political observers, not a stated explanation from Donalds himself.

What cannot easily be separated from the website overhaul is Donalds’ political history. The Florida congressman has been one of Trump’s most visible congressional allies, became a national surrogate during the 2024 presidential campaign, was among the Republicans considered during Trump’s vice-presidential selection process and entered Florida’s 2026 governor’s race with an early Trump endorsement that became one of the defining elements of his primary campaign.

Now, with the Republican primary over and Democratic nominee David Jolly waiting in the general election, Donalds is presenting Florida voters with a noticeably different campaign website.

Trump’s Endorsement Once Dominated Donalds’ Campaign Website

The previous version of Donalds’ website left little ambiguity about which national political figure stood behind his campaign. Trump’s endorsement was incorporated into the homepage, fundraising appeals and Donalds’ presentation of himself to Republican primary voters.

The homepage identified Donalds as a “TRUMP-ENDORSED Proven Conservative Fighter.” A prominent yellow banner declared “ENDORSED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP!” while another section highlighted Trump’s early encouragement for Donalds to enter the race with the phrase “RUN, BYRON, RUN!” A fundraising button asked visitors to “Chip in to Support Trump Endorsed Byron Donalds,” and the website prominently displayed a photograph of Donalds and his wife, Erika Donalds, posing with Trump.

Those elements made the president more than one endorsement among many. Trump was woven directly into the campaign’s visual identity and political message. That presentation reflected the strategy Donalds used while seeking the Republican nomination. Trump endorsed Donalds in February 2025, well before the 2026 primary, giving the Southwest Florida congressman a prominent national endorsement as Republicans competed to succeed term limited Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Donalds ultimately secured the Republican nomination in August. Jolly, a former Republican congressman who later became a Democrat, won the Democratic nomination, setting up the November general election for Florida’s next governor.

At Least Eight Trump References Disappeared From the Homepage

The redesigned Donalds campaign website looks substantially different from the version Republican primary voters encountered earlier in the campaign. Visualping identified at least eight Trump references removed from the homepage, according to reporting on the changes. The “Trump endorsed” description is gone. The endorsement banner is gone. The “RUN, BYRON, RUN!” feature is gone. The Trump centered fundraising language disappeared, as did the photograph showing Donalds and his wife with the president.

Trump has not disappeared entirely from Donalds’ campaign presentation. His endorsement remains on the website, but it now appears alongside endorsements from other conservative figures rather than receiving the dominant placement it previously enjoyed. The current presentation includes Trump in a rotating collection of endorsements alongside figures including Sen. Rick Scott, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Sen. Ted Cruz and others. That is a significant change in visual emphasis from the primary campaign, regardless of the campaign’s motivation for making it.

‘Enact the Trump Agenda’ Gives Way to ‘Affordability’

The changes extend beyond photographs, endorsement banners and fundraising language. Donalds also reorganized the policy section of his campaign website, changing which issues voters encounter first. Earlier in the campaign, Donalds prominently pledged to implement Trump’s agenda in Florida, and his website listed “Enact the Trump Agenda” first among his policy priorities. The redesigned website removes that heading and instead leads with “Affordability.”

The current affordability agenda focuses heavily on issues with direct consequences for Florida households, including property insurance, taxes, utility expenses and government accountability. Donalds proposes protecting previous insurance reforms while pursuing additional regulatory changes, reforming the My Safe Florida Home program, limiting the size of Citizens Property Insurance, reducing permitting obstacles following storms and creating an online insurance company scorecard allowing consumers to compare pricing, claims performance and coverage denials.

The campaign also proposes keeping property taxes under control and preventing large industrial data centers from shifting electricity and water costs onto residential customers. Those proposals place household expenses and state economic concerns at the front of Donalds’ general election presentation rather than his relationship with the president. The substantive changes do not necessarily amount to a rejection of Trump administration policies. What has unmistakably changed is their placement, framing and prominence.

Donalds Campaign Says the Website Is About Florida Issues

Donalds’ campaign has offered a straightforward explanation for the redesign: the general election campaign is focusing on the issues it believes matter most to Florida voters. Campaign spokesperson Gates McGavick said the website reflects Donalds’ focus on affordability, insurance costs and government transparency while emphasizing that Donalds remains proud of Trump’s endorsement. The campaign has therefore rejected the premise that the redesigned website represents a political divorce from the president.

Campaign websites also routinely change between primary and general elections as candidates move from appealing primarily to their own party’s voters to communicating with the broader electorate. Donalds’ website changes can therefore be documented without assuming a private political motivation that his campaign has not acknowledged.

The timing nevertheless ensures the redesign will receive scrutiny because Donalds’ previous alignment with Trump was unusually prominent and because similar changes have appeared in other Republican campaigns during the 2026 general election cycle. A Washington Post review published earlier in September found at least seven Republican House candidates in competitive races had reduced or removed Trump related language from their campaign websites after their primaries, while several continued to support Trump publicly.

Donalds Spent Years as One of Trump’s Most Visible Congressional Allies

Donalds’ relationship with Trump extends well beyond the 2026 governor’s race. Since entering Congress in 2021, the Southwest Florida Republican has emerged as one of the party’s most recognizable conservative voices and became a frequent defender of Trump on national television. Donalds was among the House Republicans who objected to certifying electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021. Courts and election officials had rejected or failed to substantiate claims that widespread fraud changed the outcome of the election.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donalds became a prominent Trump surrogate, appearing regularly in national media and at campaign events. His visibility became significant enough that he was among the Republicans considered during Trump’s vice presidential selection process before Trump ultimately chose J.D. Vance.

Trump’s support subsequently became an important part of Donalds’ path toward the Florida governor’s race. When Donalds prepared to run to replace DeSantis, Trump publicly encouraged him and endorsed his candidacy well before the Republican primary. Donalds then prominently incorporated that endorsement into his campaign branding.

The General Election Requires a Different Electorate

Winning a party primary and winning a statewide general election require candidates to communicate with different electorates. Republican primary voters alone cannot elect Florida’s governor; the November electorate includes Republicans, Democrats and millions of Floridians registered without a major party affiliation.

Donalds now faces Jolly, whose own political biography creates an unusual general election matchup. Jolly previously represented Florida in Congress as a Republican before leaving the GOP and eventually joining the Democratic Party. His campaign has positioned him as an alternative to the Trump aligned politics Donalds represented during the Republican primary.

Donalds, meanwhile, is emphasizing affordability, insurance and state governance as he attempts to define his general election campaign around Florida specific issues. Florida’s property insurance market provides an obvious reason for that emphasis. Homeowners have faced years of high premiums, insurer withdrawals and concerns about housing affordability, making insurance policy a significant state political issue independent of national partisan politics.

The redesigned website consequently gives Donalds a platform centered more heavily on issues a Florida governor can directly influence.

Trump’s National Standing Creates a Different Political Environment

The website overhaul also comes during a difficult national political environment for Trump. Recent polling has shown substantial dissatisfaction with the president, particularly surrounding economic conditions and the ongoing war with Iran. Individual surveys vary considerably depending on methodology, timing, question wording and population, and issue specific ratings should not be confused with overall presidential job approval.

The broader environment has prompted scrutiny of how Republican candidates around the country present their relationships with Trump. A Washington Post analysis of Republican candidates’ campaign websites and political messaging found that several candidates in competitive races have reduced the prominence of Trump or MAGA related language while continuing to support the president or retain his endorsement.

That broader pattern does not establish Donalds’ motivation, but it provides relevant context for why changes to his website have attracted national attention. Donalds has taken a notably different approach from Republicans who have publicly criticized individual Trump administration policies. Rather than announcing a disagreement with Trump, Donalds has changed the emphasis of his campaign website while maintaining the president’s endorsement and continuing to identify as an ally.

Trump’s Endorsement Was Central to Donalds’ Republican Primary Campaign

The importance of Trump’s endorsement during the primary was clear throughout Donalds’ campaign. Trump backed Donalds early while several prominent Florida Republicans were considering or pursuing the governor’s office, helping Donalds establish national visibility and consolidate support among Republican voters.

Trump’s endorsement was repeatedly featured throughout Donalds’ campaign materials during that phase of the race, with the candidate routinely presented as “Trump endorsed Byron Donalds.” There was another indication of the campaign’s changing presentation on primary night. Reporting by the Tampa Bay Times noted that Donalds did not mention Trump during his victory speech despite praising other Republican leaders, including Scott.

Neither the speech nor the website changes independently proves that Donalds is intentionally separating himself from Trump. Together, however, they document a measurable change in how prominently the campaign is presenting the president to Florida voters.

Democrats Are Trying to Make Trump Part of the Florida Race

Jolly and Florida Democrats have an obvious strategic incentive to keep the relationship between Donalds and Trump at the center of the general election. They have pointed to Donalds’ congressional record, his support for Trump and his primary campaign materials while arguing that voters should view the Republican nominee through the lens of the national administration.

Donalds’ campaign has an equally clear incentive to define the election around Florida policy questions rather than allowing its opponent to determine the terms of the race. The redesigned website emphasizes property insurance, affordability, public safety and state government while reducing the prominence of national political branding.

Those are competing campaign strategies rather than evidence about how Florida voters will ultimately decide. Florida has moved substantially toward Republicans in recent statewide elections, but previous election results do not determine the outcome of a future contest, and polling should be understood as a snapshot of voter opinion rather than a prediction.

Campaign Money Underscores the Scale of the Florida Governor’s Race

Official Florida campaign finance records provide another measure of the scale of the contest. Through the Florida Public Campaign Finance Matching Funds Program, Donalds had received approximately $931,885 in public matching funds through September 18, while Jolly had received approximately $2.12 million. Those figures represent distributions through the state matching funds program, not the candidates’ total fundraising or overall campaign resources.

The records also confirm both Donalds and Jolly as participants in the 2026 gubernatorial campaign finance program and illustrate the substantial financial activity surrounding the race as the candidates move toward the general election.

A Campaign Website Can Change Faster Than a Political Record

The central fact behind the controversy is relatively simple: Donalds’ political record has not changed merely because his website has. He remains the candidate Trump endorsed. He remains a former Trump campaign surrogate. He remains a Republican who was considered during Trump’s 2024 vice presidential search. His congressional record, including his objections during the 2020 Electoral College certification process, remains part of his public record.

At the same time, campaigns routinely decide which parts of a candidate’s biography, endorsements and policy platform receive the most attention. Donalds’ campaign has now made that choice in a particularly visible way. The Republican primary version of the website presented Donalds prominently as Trump’s candidate for governor. The general election version presents Donalds first as a candidate focused on affordability, insurance costs, law enforcement and Florida government.

Whether Florida voters interpret that transformation as an ordinary transition from a primary campaign to a general-election campaign, an attempt to create political distance from the president or simply a redesigned website is ultimately a judgment for voters themselves. What can be established from the public record is that Donalds spent years building a close political association with Trump, relied heavily on the president’s endorsement during his campaign for the Republican nomination and then removed much of that Trump centered branding after securing the nomination.

With the November election approaching, Donalds is no longer asking Florida voters to encounter Donald Trump first when they visit his campaign website. He is asking them to encounter Byron Donalds.

Sources & Further Reading

• Tampa Bay Times — “Byron Donalds pulls prominent mentions of Trump from campaign website”
• The Washington Post — “Florida governor candidate Byron Donalds removes Trump mentions from campaign website”
• The Guardian — “Another Florida Republican distances himself from Donald Trump before midterms”
• The Washington Post — Republican House candidates tone down Trump on their campaign websites
• Byron Donalds for Governor — Affordability Agenda
• Florida Division of Elections — 2026 Public Campaign Finance Records
• Florida Division of Elections — Official Elections Portal