The nation will hear a new President sing a far different tune in his prime-time address before Congress on Tuesday night. Some Americans will lustily sing along. Others will plug their ears.

The old tune is out – the one where a president declares “we strongly support NATO,” “I believe strongly in free trade” and Washington must do more to promote clean air, clean water, women’s health and civil rights.

That was Donald Trump in 2017.

That was back when gestures of bipartisanship and appeals to national unity were still in the mix on the night the president comes before Congress to hold forth on the state of the union. Trump, then new at the job, was just getting his footing in the halls of power and not ready to stomp on everything.

It would be three more years before Americans would see Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, then the House Speaker and his State of the Union host in the chamber, performatively rip up a copy of Trump’s speech in disgust over its contents.

On Tuesday, Americans who tune into Trump’s address will see whether he speaks to the whole country, as he mostly did in his first such speech in the chamber as president, or only to the roughly half who voted for him.

They will see also whether he hews to ceremony and common courtesies, as he did in 2017, or goes full bore on showmanship and incitement.

He comes into it days after assailing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his face and before the cameras in the Oval Office for not expressing sufficient gratitude for U.S. support in Ukraine’s war with Russia. It was a display of public humiliation by an American president to an allied foreign leader with no parallel in anyone’s memory.

Jarrett Borden, walking to lunch on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Florida, this past week, expressed ambivalence about Trump, having heard a lot of “hogwash” from him even while liking some of what he has done. Borden anticipates a good show Tuesday and will watch.

“I want to see if he’s going to leave the mic open for Elon Musk, like it’s an open mic at a club or something,” he said, citing the billionaire architect of Trump’s civil service purge. “This is what he’s been doing recently, which is comical.”

In Philadelphia, visual artist Nova Villanueva will spend Tuesday evening doing something — anything — else. She is into avoiding politics and social media altogether these fraught days.

“Yeah, it’s kind of sad,” she said. “It’s almost like I have to be ignorant to be at peace with myself and my life right now.”

A new President’s first speech to Congress is not designated a State of the Union address, coming so close to the Jan. 20 inauguration. But it serves the same purpose, offering an annual accounting of what has been done, what is ahead and what condition the country is in, as the President sees it.

It is customary in modern times for the president to say the state of the union is strong, no matter what a mess it may be in. Trump won the election saying the state of the union was in shambles and he was going to make it right.

The Trump who addressed Congress on Feb. 28, 2017, is recognizable now, despite the measured tone and content of that speech. After all, he had already shocked the political class by assailing “American carnage” from the inaugural stage.

He told Congress that night he wanted NATO members to spend more on their armed forces, wanted trade to be “fair” as well as free, and wanted foreign countries in crises to be made stable enough so that people who fled to the U.S. could go back home. But he did not open his first term with the wrenching turns in foreign policy, civil service firings, stirrings of mass deportation or cries of “drill, baby, drill” of today.

In a line that could have come from any president of either party, Trump noted in his 2017 speech that, “with the help of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we have formed a council with our neighbors in Canada to help ensure that women entrepreneurs have access to the networks, markets and capital they need to start a business and live out their financial dreams.”

Now he belittles Trudeau as “governor” of a land he wants to make the 51st state and is about to slam with tariffs, along with Mexico. Canadians, not known for displays of patriotism, are seething about their neighbor and rushing to buy and fly their flag.

In Philadelphia, small-time entrepreneur Michael Mangraviti cannot help but take some satisfaction in Trump’s scouring of the bureaucracy as the firings pile up with scant regard for how well people did their jobs or how those jobs helped keep services to the public running.

“He said for years and years, ‘Drain the swamp, drain the swamp,’” Mangraviti said. “But, you know, now is the time to actually drain the swamp.”

“We’ve seen time and time and time again that the government is horribly, horribly ineffective at everything it wants to do,” he went on. “The fact that they’re actually taking action on something that they say they’re going to do, the fact that they’re ready to take the ax and take it to our government, is something I appreciate.”

To Cassandra Piper, a Philadelphia instrumentalist, Trump’s move to stop making pennies was a “fine decision” — unlike everything else he has said and done.

“I comprehensively disapprove of the changes that are being made,” Piper said, stopping to speak while walking by the Liberty Bell Center. “Not that I was all too happy with the status quo beforehand in the first place, but there’s absolutely no good that can come from the inhumanity of mass deportation, something that this country has already been scarred by.

So, too, with Trump’s selection of vaccination skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and his choice of Musk to lead the effort to “effectively plunder the government of its resources,” in Piper’s view.

In Hollywood, Florida, Borden, who is Black, said that to the extent Trump can take money that Washington spends overseas and pump it into the U.S. economy, “then you are making America great again. But do that without the racial overtones. Do that without the negative energy, and we’re going to be OK.”

“I think the world is just the world, and we should all just love each other,” he said.

Abraham Lincoln might have agreed, as he summoned the “better angels of our nature” in an inaugural speech, a month before the Civil War, that pleaded with Americans not to “break our bonds of affection.”

Trump had something to say on that subject, too, in 2017: “We all bleed the same blood.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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For years, the insurance industry has lulled the Florida Legislature into a cozy alternative reality in which the industry’s failures were caused by forces that the industry could not control: catastrophic storms like Michael and Ian, erroneous adjusters, unscrupulous roofers, ill-informed consumers, and, of course … attorneys.

However, a series of bombshell reports in recent months have shed new light on this reality. The most recent report, first detailed in the Miami Herald and Tampa Times by reporter Lawrence Mower, has upended the industry’s narrative.

Mower’s story detailed a secret 2022 study the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) withheld for two years despite multiple public records requests.

The study, which cost taxpayers $150,000, found that insurer parent companies were steering billions of dollars to affiliate companies, including Managing General Entities (MGAs), while claiming losses. Mower’s reporting pulled back the curtain and revealed the true cause of our insurance crisis — the industry’s own questionable business practices.

True to form, the industry has responded to these reports with attempts to rewrite reality.

The most recent attempt came Friday when a Tallahassee insurance agency executive, Allen McGinniss, lashed out at Mower’s reporting with a scathing attack on the reporter’s ethics while implying that we all need to be educated on “the structural realities of Florida’s insurance market.”

McGinniss defends the industry’s reliance on Managing General Agents (MGAs), the subject of the OIR study uncovered by Mower, and a business model Florida’s current Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky has said needs a closer look. The Commissioner even proposed legislation seeking greater oversight of MGAs.

McGinniss clearly seeks to rewrite this reality as he quotes former Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty’s support for the model; the problem is — McCarty has not been Commissioner since 2016.

Unfortunately, narratives like this from the industry have led us here.

Relying on industry misinformation, Florida’s elected officials passed a series of pro-insurance, anti-consumer laws in pursuit of “market stability.” Now, the industry and even state regulators claim that Florida has achieved this mythical nirvana of market stability, and Florida’s insurance woes are on the mend.

However, that is not the story lawmakers hear every day in their communities, where they face truly challenging questions from voters. This was clear in recent committee meetings to prepare for Session, and as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel headline explained: Two years after reforms, lawmakers share insurance horror stories.

The story details comments made during a recent House Subcommittee on Insurance and Banking by Rep. Daniel Alvarez. During the committee meeting, the Republican from Riverview in Hillsborough County remarked, “When I’m on the street, I simply don’t know how to talk to my constituents … This is what I know: I know I voted on a bill that every insurance expert told me, ‘Give me two years, Danny, before you start getting hot, right? And you will see either prices stabilize and come down or come down, and I do not know that I have seen either of those two. And when I am the guy who faces the consumer, I just do not know what to tell them anymore other than, ‘I’m sorry.’ I have got people leaving because they cannot afford it anymore, and this is the main driver.”

Here is the reality – in the four years since the Legislature began passing insurance industry reforms, the rate at which insurers deny claims has increased significantly. According to the OIR data, pre-reform storms, Ian and Irma had claims denial rates of 28% and 31%, respectively. Compare that to post-reform storms. Hurricane Milton claims have been closed without payment at a rate of 43%, and Hurricane Helene claims have a 53% likelihood of being denied without any benefits paid.

Insurance companies have attempted to blame flood damage for many of these denial rates and implied that Floridians should have been more responsible and purchased flood insurance, regardless of how high and dry their property was situated.

For years, Florida’s homeowner policies have been allowed to include “anti-concurrency causation” provisions. In simple terms, an ACC provision allows the insurance company to deny an entire claim if it says that any part of the damage was caused by a factor not covered in the policy. ACC abuse is not new; it has been increasingly common since Hurricane Michael in 2018, but Florida’s 2022 and 2023 tort reform laws have empowered insurance companies to deny claims with impunity, knowing that consumers will have an uphill battle to challenge their insurance company.

The trend was concerning enough that Insurance Commissioner Yaworsky sent a memo to Florida insurers on Feb. 20, 2025, requiring them to provide additional data and noting that regulators had “recently learned of potentially concerning behavior relating to anti-concurrent causation policy language and the explicit avoidance of applying coverage for policyholders.”

Due to the excellent reporting of Mower and countless other reporters who have given a voice to the Floridians victimized by their own insurance companies, OIR was finally forced to act.

It is now clear that the industry that exists to support Floridians in their greatest times of distress has manufactured a crisis and used the call for “market stability” to leave their customers blowing in the wind … while they made record profits.

Profits that give many Floridians anxiety.

In a recent poll of 2026 likely General Election voters conducted by the Associated Industries of Florida Center for Political Strategy, one in three likely voters said the cost of property insurance was the most pressing issue facing the state. When asked what costs were causing them the most “anxiety,” four of the top five responses were insurance-related – property and auto insurance, and mortgage and health care costs all topped the list.

AIF was one of the leading voices in support of tort reform, and it speaks volumes that their own polling shows that Floridians are still feeling the pain of the insurance crisis four years into Florida’s failed tort reform experiment.

All of this proves that President Trump was 100% correct two years ago when he called Florida’s industry-backed tort reform law “the biggest insurance industry BAILOUT to Globalist Insurance Companies, IN HISTORY” and “the worst Insurance Scam in the entire Country.”

McGinniss, the Tallahassee insurance agency executive, called Mower’s factual reporting “reckless,” reliant on “cherry-picked data,” and said it was “a clickbait narrative that fuels the public anger while doing nothing to solve the real issues at hand.” But as the saying goes, “A kicked dog howls.”

Instead of attacking journalists for exposing the truth and blaming consumers when their claims are denied, Florida’s insurance companies need to do the hard work and hold themselves and their industry accountable for upholding the contracts that Floridians pay for and deserve to have honored. If they are unwilling or unable to do that, then the Florida Legislature should make them.

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Todd Michaels is president of the Florida Justice Association.

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Miami Beach broke up with spring break last year and city leaders still aren’t interested in couples counseling.

Officials recently announced they were bringing back enhanced security measures for practically the entire month of March, including parking restrictions and increased fees for nonresidents.

The new rules were introduced last year after three consecutive years of spring break violence. The city is again warning visitors to expect curfews, bag searches at the beach, early beach closures, DUI checkpoints and arrests for drug possession and violence.

“Last year’s spring break was a success on any level you measure it,” Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner said. “We had zero fatalities, zero shootings, zero stampedes. The majority of our businesses did very well and actually thanked us for the measures we took.”

Most spring break activity centers around a 10-block stretch of Ocean Drive known for its Art Deco hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. Before spring break last year, city officials launched a marketing campaign that said, “Miami Beach Is Breaking Up With Spring Break.” A video featured residents “breaking up” with spring breakers and warning them to expect restrictions if they decided to come anyway.

This year, officials followed up with a “Reality Check” video featuring a group of young people on a fictitious reality show having their spring break ruined by the city’s enhanced rules.

“We broke up a spring break,” Meiner said. “Some people ask, are you getting back together? No, we’re done.”

City leaders want visitors to come and enjoy the beaches, hotels and restaurants, as long as they behave, Meiner said, noting that overall hotel occupancy actually increased in 2024 over 2023.

“And that’s because when you walked around Ocean Drive and South Beach, you felt welcoming, you felt safe,” Meiner said.

Miami Beach isn’t the only Florida city bracing for spring breakers this year. Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tampa are among the top 10 domestic spring break destinations, according to AAA booking data.

Following a particularly rowdy Presidents Day weekend in Daytona Beach, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood recently announced plans to crack down on bad behavior from spring breakers.

“They don’t bring any financial benefit,” Chitwood said. “All they do is bring chaos, and if they want to bring chaos, I am going to bring chaos in return.”

Some Miami Beach business owners see the restrictions as necessary to ensure public safety, while others are concerned that driving away spring breakers could irreparably damage Miami Beach’s status as an iconic tourist destination.

Louis Taic, owner of the Z Ocean Hotel, said he welcomes visitors to Miami Beach any time of the year, but he understands why city officials have taken to actions that they have.

“What we don’t like is people that take advantage of Miami Beach, that take advantage by doing things here that they would never do at home,” Taic said.

David Wallack, owner of Mango’s Tropical Cafe, said Miami Beach has thrived as an entertainment destination for nearly a century, even through Prohibition and the Great Depression.

Instead of trying to scare people away, city officials need to organize events such as concerts, art festivals and sporting events to attract people who will spend money, Wallack said.

“Miami Beach is magical, but you’ve got to still give customers what they want,” Wallack said.

Some civil rights advocates believe the restrictions are racially motivated.

South Beach became popular among Black tourists about two decades ago as promoters organized Urban Beach Week during the Memorial Day weekend. Many locals have complained about violence and other crime associated with the event, which led to an increased police presence. But the event’s continued popularity correlates to a bump in Black tourism throughout the year.

Stephen Hunter Johnson, an attorney and member of Miami-Dade’s Black Affairs Advisory Board, said city leaders are using a brief spike in violence as an excuse to discourage Black visitors.

Most of the problems experienced by Miami Beach in recent years began during the pandemic, when Florida remained open while other popular tourist destinations around the U.S. were locked down, and officials are unfairly crediting the new spring break restrictions with decreasing violence last year, Johnson said.

“Arrests were down, and no one was shot,” Johnson said. “Those things were going to occur anyway, because the farther we get away from COVID restrictions, the more normalized things are.”

Meiner has repeatedly rejected the notion that the restrictions are racially motivated. He always hates the idea of anyone getting injured, but as an elected official he feels an additional sense of responsibility when people are shot and killed in the city he serves, he said.

“We are going to keep people safe,” Meiner said. “Law and order is the number one priority in our city. There is no compromising on that.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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