Byron Donalds Scrubs Trump Mentions From Florida Governor Site

Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for Florida governor, relaunched his campaign website Tuesday with almost every mention of President Donald Trump removed, including a photograph of Donalds and his wife, Erika, posing with the president, the Miami Herald reported, according to The Guardian.

The website tracking service Visualping recorded the changes, which included the deletion of at least eight references to Trump from the site's homepage, the Herald's reporting found. Donalds had previously built his primary campaign around Trump's endorsement, featuring a large banner on the site touting the president's support.

Why is Donalds distancing himself from Trump now

The website overhaul follows Representative María Elvira Salazar's public criticism of Trump's immigration-enforcement policy toward law-abiding undocumented immigrants, according to the Guardian. Salazar's comments made her the first prominent Florida Republican this cycle to break publicly with the White House on a signature policy issue. Donalds' move marks a second instance of a leading Florida Republican creating distance from the administration ahead of the midterms.

Donalds has not issued a public statement explaining the website changes, and the Guardian's report does not include a comment from his campaign.

How is Trump's approval rating affecting the race

Trump's overall approval rating fell below 30% for the first time, driven by dissatisfaction over his handling of the economy and the Iran war, the Guardian reported. Republicans are bracing for what the outlet described as heavy losses in November, including the possible loss of the party's majorities in the House and Senate.

Against that backdrop, Sabato's Crystal Ball, an election forecasting outlet, shifted its rating of the open Florida governor's race from "likely Republican" to "leans Republican" on Tuesday. The report's author, Kyle Kondik, wrote that "the GOP is still favored in both, but close polling, a bad political environment, and possible exhaustion with long periods of Republican leadership may make both of these races fairly close."

What does the website change signal for the governor's race

The timing links Donalds' rebrand to a broader recalibration among Florida Republicans facing a governor's race that forecasters no longer treat as a lock. Donalds ran his primary campaign heavily on Trump's endorsement, and the removal of the joint photograph with the president represents a visible break from that strategy, according to the Herald's reporting cited by the Guardian.

The Guardian's account does not specify whether Donalds altered his public messaging beyond the website, or whether he has commented on Trump's immigration policy the way Salazar did. The scope of the change, as documented by Visualping, was limited to the homepage content Visualping tracked, including the removal of the banner advertising Trump's support and the deletion of the photograph.

Data points behind the shift

• Trump's approval rating: below 30% for the first time, per the Guardian, attributed to economic dissatisfaction and the Iran war.
• Website changes: at least eight mentions of Trump removed from the Donalds campaign homepage, per Visualping data cited by the Miami Herald and relayed by the Guardian.
• Race rating: moved from "likely Republican" to "leans Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball on Tuesday.

What to watch

• Whether Donalds addresses the website changes directly or continues to avoid public comment on the shift.
• Whether other Florida Republicans follow Salazar and Donalds in creating public distance from Trump ahead of November.
• Additional movement in Sabato's Crystal Ball or comparable forecasts for the Florida governor's race and other competitive Florida contests.
• Any response from the Trump campaign or White House to the removal of Trump references from a previously Trump-aligned campaign site.

Donalds' primary campaign had leaned on Trump's endorsement as a central credential, a strategy common among Republican gubernatorial candidates in recent cycles. The scrubbed website marks a departure from that approach at a moment when the party's midterm prospects face added uncertainty, per the polling and approval figures cited in the Guardian's reporting.

Neither the Donalds campaign nor the Trump campaign has issued a statement responding to the website changes, based on the source material reviewed.