Trump Bucks Republicans to Come Out for Legalizing Weed

Donald Trump has confirmed he will vote for recreational marijuana use to be legalized in Florida, putting him at loggerheads with the state’s governor and his erstwhile competitor for the Republican nomination.

“I believe it’s time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Monday. “As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November.” He added that as president he would support the passage of similar laws in other states “that work so well for their citizens.”

His position pits him against not only Ron DeSantis, who has previously decried the proposal, which Floridians will vote on in November, as a “license to [use marijuana] wherever you want,” but also Ken Griffin, billionaire hedge fund manager and top GOP donor, who’s thrown an estimated $12 million into campaigning against the legalization initiative.

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Trump’s announcement represents something of a ripple in the waters after a period of relative calm in his relationship with DeSantis, after the governor fought a bitter battle for the Republican presidential nomination with the former president earlier this year.

Before DeSantis dropped out in January, Trump ripped him for supposedly having come to him crying and begging “on his knees” for an endorsement when he was running for governor back in 2018. The former president also launched attacks on DeSantis’ height and sexual orientation. At one point, Trump even implied that DeSantis might be a pedophile.

DeSantis often shot back by slamming Trump for “juvenile insults,” warning that the U.S. doesn’t need “any more presidents that have lost the zip on their fastball” and taking jabs at Trump’s failure to beat Joe Biden in 2020.

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The pair eventually struck a tentative peace in January, with DeSantis endorsing Trump after polls showed him trailing the former president with an approval rating in the single digits. Their relationship nevertheless remains strained, with DeSantis continuing to level criticism at Trump’s advisers, among whom he is thought to be widely loathed.

On one thing, however, they appear able to agree—neither of them care much for the smell of weed. Trump has previously expressed reservations about the impact of legalization, saying Floridians might “smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities,” while DeSantis has described the drug as having a “putrid” and “pungent odor.”