On the Southern Boulevard bridge next to President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, there is a parked car festooned with Trump flags. Jestin Nevarez — who blasts out a rap version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” titled “Trump Saved the USA” on repeat — is the owner.
“I come out here and show support,” he told The Independent. “And right now, Mar-a-Lago is a tourist attraction. So when people drive by, they see the flags, they hear the music, they stop in and they have a good time.”
People do indeed stop to take photos of Nevarez’s car and snap photos of the once and future president’s estate.
Palm Beach has changed in the years since Trump first became president. In 2016, Palm Beach County voted for Hillary Clinton by more than 15 points. It went on to vote for Joe Biden by about 13 points. But this last election, Palm Beach County moved more in line with its most famous resident, when Kamala Harris won it by less than a point.
Later in the day on Friday, Angelique Morgan, a former reality television personality who goes by the name Frenchy Morgan, arrived in a pink Chevy convertible to talk with Nevarez and take photos. Morgan said she has been to Mar-a-Lago three times.
“I'm absolutely fascinated with Trump,” she told The Independent. “If he's not the American dream, I don't know who is.”
Morgan, who is a French-born naturalized American citizen, said she was particularly excited that Trump has brought on Elon Musk onto his team.
“Trump adopted Elon, right? And I love it,” she said. “And I think it's amazing this time around, he has strong people around him who have more money than him, who can also help him and protect him.”
Brandee Sisting was excited to visit Mar-a-Lago on Saturday for an event with Charlie Kirk. She’d traveled to Florida from Ventura, California specifically for it.
Sisting said that on election night, she wasn’t optimistic. In 2020, it looked like Trump was going to win and then he didn’t, after all.
“So I went to bed, I just said, ‘No, I'm gonna go read my Bible and I'm gonna go to sleep. I'm exhausted,’” she said. “And the next morning I woke up and my husband said, ‘He got it, Brandee. He won.’”
Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach are not the same as Washington, however — and Trump’s return to DC since his second electoral victory has been rocky. His nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, another Florida man and former congressman, took himself out of the running after a series of controversies. Nobody, not even his biggest supporters on Capitol Hill, are sure what his proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — will actually do. Pete Hegseth, his nominee to be Defense Secretary, continues to be on the ropes and it remains unclear whether Republicans will vote to confirm him.
But back on Southern Boulevard, voters want Republicans to get behind Trump’s picks. Nevarez flagged how Hegseth’s mother retracted her previous criticisms of her son in an interview on Fox News.
“Honestly, at this point, our country is so in disarray and and torn up that I don't care about somebody's personal life,” Nevarez said. “I want to know what they're gonna do for us, what they gotta do for our country.”
“A lot of Republicans, they might as well switch their names to Democrats, because that's what they are,” he continued. “It's the MAGA movement and Trump's movement. It's common-sense America first. Trump's not a natural conservative, he's not a natural Republican. He's common-sense America First.”
Nevarez said he had been particularly rankled by the behavior of outgoing Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn.
“They've been taking advantage of we the people and the government for years, and getting filthy rich off their positions as civil servants,” he said.
Sisting, for her part, said she hoped that the GOP would come around.
“I'm not frustrated with the Republicans if they become educated,” she said, adding that she is a former Democrat herself. “[Trump] is a good businessman, we got to give him a chance, and he has to surround himself with people that are ethical and truthful.”
As the celebrations continued outside Trump’s estate, tourists continued to arrive to snap photos. But, despite his popularity here in Florida, Trump’s star power might not be bright enough to burn the Senate down.
