President Trump is playing three-dimensional chess while Democrats are still trying to figure out checkers.
His latest strategic masterstroke could hand Florida Republicans the chance to eliminate several Democrat House seats permanently.
And Trump just handed Florida Republicans the perfect weapon to demolish Democrats with one strategic census move.
Trump orders new census to exclude illegal aliens
President Trump announced Thursday that he’s instructing the Department of Commerce to conduct a new census that excludes illegal immigrants from the count.
“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.”
This isn’t just about accurate population counts – it’s about taking power away from sanctuary cities and states that have been gaming the system for decades.
Blue states like California and New York have been artificially inflating their congressional representation by counting illegal aliens who can’t vote but still count toward House apportionment.
Trump’s move levels the playing field and ensures that congressional seats go to states with actual American citizens, not just warm bodies.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been pushing for exactly this kind of action, telling Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick directly that Florida “got a raw deal in the census.”
Florida House Speaker moves fast to capitalize on Trump’s opportunity
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez didn’t waste any time responding to Trump’s census announcement.
Hours after Trump’s Truth Social post, Perez announced he’s creating a “Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting” to prepare for redrawing Florida’s congressional map.
“Exploring these questions now, at the mid-decade point, would potentially allow us to seek legal guidance from our supreme court without the uncertainty associated with deferring those questions until after the next decennial census and reapportionment,” Perez explained in a memo to House members.
Smart move.
While Democrats are still crying about “fairness” and “precedent,” Republicans are actually taking action to fix the rigged system that’s been cheating red states for years.
Florida Republicans already control 20 of the state’s 28 congressional seats after DeSantis pushed through a brilliant redistricting map in 2022 that flipped four seats from blue to red.
But they’re not stopping there.
https://twitter.com/OpenSourceZone/status/1948443888605069422
A new census excluding illegal aliens could justify adding even more Republican seats – and eliminating the remaining Democrat strongholds in South Florida.
Democrats panic as their rigged system crumbles
The Florida Democratic Party is absolutely losing their minds over this strategic Republican maneuver.
“This is corruption, plain and simple,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said. “Drawing district maps is supposed to happen once a decade, after a federal census.”
That’s rich coming from the party that spent decades benefiting from counting illegal aliens to boost their congressional representation.
Orlando Democrat Anna Eskamani called the redistricting committee “deeply troubling,” claiming it “threatens fair representation.”
What’s actually threatening fair representation is counting people who aren’t legally allowed to be in the country to determine how many House seats each state gets.
“Redrawing Congressional maps outside of the standard post-census cycle threatens fair representation, undermines the intent of our democratic system, and risks silencing our diverse communities,” Eskamani complained.
Notice how Democrats always claim their rigged system represents “our democratic system” when they’re the ones benefiting from it.
The real threat to democracy has been allowing sanctuary cities to inflate their political power by harboring illegal immigrants and counting them for congressional apportionment.
Florida Supreme Court clears the path for Republican redistricting
Republicans aren’t just making this up as they go – they have solid legal ground to stand on.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled last month to uphold DeSantis’s congressional map, dealing a crushing blow to Democrat lawsuits trying to restore their gerrymandered districts.
The court’s 5-1 decision held that the “Fair Districts” constitutional amendments, which Democrats used to protect their minority-majority districts, actually violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz wrote for the majority that legislators have a “superior” obligation to follow federal equal-protection law rather than Florida’s Fair Districts amendments.
This ruling gives Florida Republicans the legal justification to redraw congressional lines without worrying about Democrat complaints about racial gerrymandering.
The court basically said that creating districts specifically to elect minority candidates is itself a form of unconstitutional discrimination.
Game over for the Democrat playbook.
Republican strategists zero in on vulnerable Democrat districts
Don’t think for a second this redistricting talk is just theoretical posturing.
Republican operatives have already done the math on which Democrat seats are ripe for elimination.
Moskowitz, Wasserman Schultz, and Frankel all represent South Florida districts that could disappear with the right map adjustments – turning what were once safe blue seats into either competitive swing districts or outright Republican territory.
Tampa’s Kathy Castor and Orlando-area Representative Darren Soto are getting similar attention from redistricting experts who see opportunities to either flip or fragment their current strongholds.
Republicans are also eyeing Kathy Castor’s Tampa district and Darren Soto’s Orlando-area seat as potential opportunities for pickup or elimination.
These aren’t random choices – these are some of the most anti-Trump Democrats in Congress who have spent years trying to obstruct the America First agenda.
Wasserman Schultz was the corrupt DNC chair who rigged the 2016 primary against Bernie Sanders before getting fired in disgrace.
Now she could find herself without a safe district to hide in.
The 2022 map already eliminated former Rep. Al Lawson’s North Florida district, which had been artificially created as a majority-Black district stretching across multiple counties.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled that district was an illegal “race-based gerrymander” that violated equal protection rights.
National redistricting war favors Republicans
Florida’s move comes as part of a nationwide redistricting push that could secure Republican control of the House for the next decade.
Texas is already redrawing its map to add up to five new Republican seats, while other red states like Indiana and Ohio are considering similar moves.
Blue state governors like California’s Gavin Newsom are threatening to respond with their own mid-decade redistricting, but they face a major problem.
Trump’s new census excluding illegal aliens will hurt blue states’ representation while helping red states that actually follow immigration law.
California and New York have been artificially boosting their congressional delegations for decades by counting millions of illegal immigrants who can’t vote but still count toward House apportionment.
A census that only counts legal residents will expose just how much political power these sanctuary states have been stealing from law-abiding red states.
Legal challenges can’t stop constitutional redistricting
Democrats will inevitably file lawsuits trying to stop Florida’s redistricting, but they face an uphill battle.
The Florida Supreme Court has already ruled that the current map is constitutional and that federal law takes precedence over state Fair Districts amendments.
Speaker Perez is being careful to follow constitutional requirements by excluding anyone with congressional ambitions from the redistricting committee.
“Statements about redistricting that suggest an intent to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party, which is currently prohibited by the Florida Constitution, will also disqualify you from consideration,” Perez wrote.
This shows Republicans are following proper procedure while Democrats just complain about losing their rigged advantages.
The timeline also works in Republicans’ favor.
The regular census process takes more than a year, but Trump’s Commerce Department can move much faster by building on existing data and 2024 election results.
Republicans have until June 2026 to get new maps finalized for the November election – plenty of time even with inevitable court battles.
Trump’s census move changes the entire political landscape
Here’s what Trump really accomplished with his census announcement.
For decades, states like California and New York have been padding their congressional delegations by counting every warm body within their borders – including millions of people who can’t legally vote.
Meanwhile, states that actually enforce immigration law get shortchanged because they don’t have inflated population numbers from undocumented residents.
Trump’s decision to exclude illegal aliens from the census count doesn’t just affect Florida – it reshuffles political power across the entire country in favor of states with actual voting citizens.
This puts America First by making sure American citizens’ votes carry equal weight regardless of which state they live in.
Florida Republicans are smart to move quickly on redistricting while they have the legal momentum and political support to make it happen.
Governor DeSantis has already proven he can successfully navigate redistricting fights, having pushed through a map that gained four Republican seats despite massive Democrat opposition.
“I would love for them to redo the census for ’26. My Legislature will redistrict those lines, we’ll get it to where it’s fair,” DeSantis said. “But as it’s right now, this country is not fairly apportioned.”
He’s absolutely right.
The current system rewards states for harboring illegal immigrants while penalizing states that follow federal immigration law.
The new census approach will finally give Florida and other law-abiding states the congressional representation they’ve earned through actual citizen population growth.
Democrats who spent years benefiting from this rigged system are now crying foul because they know their artificial advantages are disappearing.
Republicans don’t need to apologize for using every constitutional method available to ensure American citizens get equal representation in Congress.
¹ Gray Rohrer, “As Trump calls for new census, Florida House moves to create special redistricting panel,” USA TODAY Network – Florida, August 7, 2025.
² Mitch Perry, “Florida House creating a committee on congressional redistricting,” Florida Phoenix, August 7, 2025.
³ Julia Manchester, “Florida House Speaker forms redistricting committee,” The Hill, August 7, 2025.
⁴ Gary Fineout, “Florida moves toward joining national redistricting push,” Politico, August 7, 2025.
⁵ Jacob Ogles, “Donald Trump takes first step toward new census, something Ron DeSantis wants before the Midterms,” Florida Politics, August 7, 2025.
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Author: rgcory
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