Fact-checking Trump, Donalds and Moody as they rally voters in Fort Myers, Florida
PolitiFact · · g4155995
With 11 days until the election, President Donald Trump headlined a rally at Florida Gulf Coast University’s campus in Fort Myers to boost Republican candidates on the ballot.
Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody and Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds spoke in Donalds’ home district ahead of the president and painted their Democratic opponents — state Rep. Angie Nixon and David Jolly, respectively, as extreme.
Trump said Democrats chose “the most extreme anti-American radicals ever to seek office,” but, he said, “This is the free state of Florida, where people come to escape communists and not to elect them.”
We fact-checked some of their claims.
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Trump: Jolly is “pledging to turn Florida into a sanctuary state.” The term “sanctuary” typically is used to describe jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities.
Jolly says he wouldn’t require statewide 287(g) agreements that mandate local police participation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. But he’s open to local officials implementing them.
In a February interview with Spectrum News, Jolly said local-federal police cooperation should be suspended while ICE agents use masks and until “we know that individual due process is being protected for everybody.” Around 347 state and local agencies in Florida have signed these agreements, the most of any state.
Jolly also has said that local police should focus resources on community safety rather than immigration sweeps. His platform supports giving people a pathway to legal status and work permits for immigrants in the country illegally who have been longterm residents.
Donalds: “Ten years ago (Jolly) said that he wanted to see the end of Roe v. Wade, as a Republican. But today as a Democrat, he says he wants to bring Roe v. Wade back.”
This is accurate, and Jolly has acknowledged it.
Jolly was a Republican when he served in the U.S. House from 2014 to 2017, then became an independent and eventually a Democrat in 2025
Jolly opposed Roe v. Wade as a Republican and aligned with anti-abortion policies . Today, Jolly says he supports Roe. v. Wade and wants to codify into law Roe’s standard of abortion access up to fetal viability — the point of gestation when the fetus can survive outside the womb. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, and Florida currently has a 6-week abortion ban .
Jolly has said his views on abortion have evolved since his time in Congress and that he previously conflated his personal faith teachings with his political stance.
Moody: Nixon “signs up to defund the police, kneecap our military, abolish prisons, let noncitizens vote, do away with our borders.”
This is misleading.
Moody was alluding to Nixon joining the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization, not a political party. The organization has not endorsed Nixon.
While Moody accurately describes the DSA platform , Nixon said she doesn’t align with everything the organization stands for.
“I don’t fully align with anybody’s full platform 100%, not even the Democratic Party,” Nixon told WLRN in August.
Nixon’s campaign has told PolitiFact she supports public safety, addressing the root causes of crime, and securing the U.S. border while also establishing clear pathways to citizenship and rebuilding immigration enforcement.
Nixon said she doesn’t support abolishing all prisons, but wants to end for-profit prisons.
Nixon opposes the U.S. war with Iran, and favors diplomacy for conflict resolution. She has advocated for heavier scrutiny of the defense budget.
Nixon’s campaign said she “supports the right of every eligible American citizen to vote.” She does not call for allowing noncitizen voting.
Donalds: When Jolly was a Republican, he “said that he was a staunch defender of the Second Amendment. But now as a Democrat, he’s somebody who rants and raves about ‘who cares about the Second Amendment.’”
Jolly’s shift on gun control is accurate. The quote Donalds referenced followed a mass shooting in Maine three years ago.
In Congress, Jolly typically aligned with the Republican Party on bills favoring firearm access.
Since leaving the party, Jolly has criticized the GOP stance on firearms while saying he supports the Second Amendment.
Donalds’ reference to Jolly saying “who cares about the Second Amendment” stems from an October 2023 MSNBC clip where Jolly criticized American gun culture. “You can say I don’t agree with the Second Amendment. Maybe I don’t, I don’t care,” Jolly said. “…We have to crush the culture of guns in the United States.”
The Oct. 25, 2023, interview followed a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine , where a gunman killed 18 people at a bowling alley and restaurant.
Jolly’s 2026 campaign stance calls for stricter firearm regulations, including banning the sale of new assault weapons, requiring universal background checks and strengthening gun storage mandates and training requirements. Like fact-focused Florida coverage? Sign up for our Florida midterms newsletter .
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