"All Roads Lead to Mar-a-Lago": Inside the Fury and Fantasy of Donald Trump's Florida

[Zorro]

Roger Stone, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro—they’ve all made their way to the Sunshine State, fueling and profiting from a tabloid culture that turns politics into spectacle, arguably Florida’s greatest export.

It’s late afternoon, and the palms of Fort Lauderdale are swaying as Roger Stone—dirty trickster, convicted felon—glides across the boulevard in short sleeves and a linen jacket, ready for his first cocktail of the day. We’re approaching the Elbo Room, a decrepit party bar on the spring-break beach strip that’s packed with revelers and blaring Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” “If you’re 18 and trying to get laid, this is the place to go,” observes Stone, who is shadowed by a neatly dressed young man who calls himself Eddie and whom Stone describes as his aide-de-camp.

This isn’t Stone’s usual watering hole, but it seemed like an appropriate stop: It’s the site of an anti-mask, pro-Trump rally last April called the Million Maskless March; the tabletops are decorated with sun-bleached photographs of seminude spring breakers in rubber Trump masks. As Stone steps to the corner, the bar crowd immediately recognizes the snow-white hair and comic book villain sunglasses, perhaps from cable news, where Stone was last seen mobbed by TV cameras following his conviction for perjury, obstruction of justice, and threatening a witness in the Robert Mueller investigation.

A thin, lantern-jawed young man covered with tattoos emerges from the bar, eager for a picture. “I have a following of a bunch of Republicans who are going to die!” he exclaims, posing next to Stone with his phone. He just moved to Florida from Boston, he says, because of “the weather and Governor DeSantis.”

Others come out, wide-eyed. A Black woman says her mother is a fan, and she wants a photo for proof of celebrity contact. Stone shoots me a victorious look—a Black woman who likes a Republican! “Say hello to your mother,” he smiles, greeting more fans. “How you doing? How are you?”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/the-fury-and-fantasy-of-donald-trumps-florida

[underpants]

1. Florida Man

[flotsam2]

2. Homo Horriblius... N/T

[hatrack]

3. After reading that, I feel like I've been dipped in a mix of Old Spice and sewage. . . .

I wouldn't piss on anyone they interview in that article if there were on fire.

OTOH, there's a picture of Ann Coulter, who's really starting to look like superannuated shit, so that's a plus.