There are plenty of qualifiers to toss in front of Donald Trump’s name. You could go with “twice-impeached-once-indicted former president,” you could say “current presidential hopeful” — you could say a lot. But, on Wednesday night, “Alex Wagner Tonight” opted for none of those; instead, they simply called him “Florida man” in their on-screen chyron.
The graphic came during Wagner’s segment about the ongoing investigation into the mishandling of classified documents that were eventually seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. According to reports, Trump and his legal team were recently notified that he is in fact a target of that investigation, which could indicate that he’ll become a twice-indicted former president soon.
As Wagner explained the latest developments and context, the graphic on-screen behind her simply said “Florida Man Target of Investigation.” The image of Trump used was also taken from behind, so his face wasn’t on the screen.
Within the actual segment, Wagner poked fun at Trump’s “caps lock heavy” response on Truth Social, in which he once again argued that he shouldn’t be charged with any crime, ever. Beyond that though, Wagner largely just presented the current facts and circumstances of the case, which indicate that charges might have to come from Florida now, if they come at all.
Still, through the whole segment, the “Florida man” graphic never changed. You can watch that in the video above.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Trump has simply been referred to as “Florida man” in a major story.
Back in November of 2022, the New York Post — which endorsed Trump in the 2020 election — used the descriptor for him when he announced he was running for president a third time. On the front page of the paper that day, the bottom-most banner read “Florida man makes announcement.”
In fact, the post took it even further within the copy of the story, the Post first referred to Trump as “a Florida retiree,” then as just an “avid golfer.”
