MIAMI — President Donald Trump on Saturday condemned reports that Florida’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds distanced himself from the president by pulling prominent reference to his endorsement from the campaign’s website — and touted upcoming rallies in Florida to boost Donalds.

“Two Rallies are already scheduled in Florida for Byron and, will be, as always, “SOLD OUT!” Trump wrote on social media.

The president is holding a rally in Mobile, Alabama, this Friday that’s intended to reach voters in Florida’s Panhandle media market as well, according to an announcement by the Republican National Committee. Vice President J.D. Vance is attending a rally in support of Florida’s Republican candidates in Lakeland on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear what days Trump might visit the state. Speaking to reporters in Miami Beach Saturday morning, Donalds said “of course” he would campaign with the president when he comes to Florida.

“Having the president come to Florida, give that little bit, that last, that jolt of energy to make sure people get out and vote. That’s important,” Donalds said.

He said his redesigned website homepage was not evidence of daylight between the two of them. Instead, he said his team had “already made plans to shift the website focus specifically to Florida” following the August primary.

Donalds’ campaign rolled out his new website — which removed prominent references to Trump’s endorsement and a photo of them together from its homepage — as polls show increasing dissatisfaction with Trump’s ongoing war with Iran. The changes also came just a few days after Miami Rep. María Elvira Salazar issued a new campaign ad criticizing Trump’s detention and deportation efforts as having gone too far.

But after news broke of the changes, Donalds said that he remains proud of his ties to the president and pointed to the fact that he still touted Trump’s endorsement on a separate landing page on the new website.

He said Saturday in Miami Beach that Trump hadn’t called him about the website changes. “It’s a stupid story. Nobody cares. He doesn’t care.”

Within an hour of Donalds making those comments, however, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to post a nearly 500-word diatribe about the news coverage about the changes to Donalds’ website.

“Another Fake Story is that a very close friend of mine, a man I endorsed very early, Byron Donalds, is taking me off his website and Campaign materials,” Trump wrote, adding that the story was further justification for his recent efforts to bar some news outlets from the White House.

“If Florida thought the story that Byron ‘dropped’ me was true, he would lose the Election, and that would be a terrible thing because he’s going to be a fantastic Governor!” Trump wrote.

Trump endorsed Donalds in early 2025 and, for more than a year, his endorsement was one of the campaign’s biggest marketing points as Donalds sought to win the Republican primary. In pivoting to general election voters in recent weeks, Donalds has been more heavily emphasizing his policy proposals.

Donalds is among the Republicans across the country navigating what many see as a challenging electoral environment for Republicans, complicated further by backlash to Trump among some segments of the Republican base.

Donalds said when it comes to the concerns about affordability dominating Florida’s governor’s race, it should be about the candidates running in the state, not the person in the White House.

“That’s not even about President Trump. I’m doing that messaging. I’m the one asking for the votes for the people of Florida to be their governor,” Donalds said.

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