Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted an online survey late Tuesday evening asking residents of the Sunshine State how best to respond to New Yorkers fleeing the city following the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
“Floridians – response to the Mamdani election in NYC should be to,” DeSantis wrote on X, attaching a poll with three options: “Build an FL border wall,” “Tariff all transplants,” and “Recruit new transplants.”
DeSantis was responding to a post from Republican Florida State Representative Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who wrote, “Florida should tariff everyone fleeing NYC, Gov @RonDeSantis.”
A day earlier, as Mamdani’s election appeared all but certain, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned that any New Yorkers seeking to flee the new socialist mayor’s administration would face a 100% tariff if they attempted to move to Texas.
Abbott did not specify how or why he would enforce such a measure, but the statement quickly gained traction among other Republican leaders.
A week before Election Day, Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicted that Mamdani would be “the future of the Democratic Party.” DeSantis replied, “Assuming he gets elected, Mamdani will be the most prominent Democrat in America the day he takes office.”
“Voters across the country will be able to watch his leftist agenda in action and know that his path is the Democrat path nationally. It will be good for Republicans, bad for New York City,” he added.
President Donald Trump offered a similar warning during a speech at the America Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday.
“Now the Democrats are so extreme that Miami will soon be the refuge for those fleeing communism in New York City. They flee,” Trump told the crowd.
“As I’ve warned for many years, our opponents are hell-bent on turning America into a communist Cuba or a socialist Venezuela, and you see what happened to those places,” the president added.
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