No sooner had the ink dried on the tweet by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announcing his run for mayor, did President Donald Trump jump to endorse him.
The POTUS himself.
It must have caught his attention when Gimenez announced the entry into the Republican primary in a welcome message to Trump, here for the Republican National Committee meeting in Doral, on his brand new campaign handle, @CarlosGimenezFL. Or, more 
likely, this was arranged through the Republican Party and maybe lobbyist son CJ Gimenez, who has represented Trump in his dealings with his resort in Doral, or his boss Freddy Balsera, who has worked on the mayoral campaigns and is photographed here with CJ and the POTUS.
This is why the “timing” was “not right” last week, not because of the ethics investigation into whether or not he used his office staff to respond to a journalist inquiry about his congressional campaign (spoiler: he did). No, it’s because they were waiting for this opportunity when Trump was coming to Miami.
Anyway, the POTUS must have forgotten who Grimenez is.
This mayor, who wants the Republican nomination, said he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. It was 
on the Jim DeFede Facing South Florida show where he debated former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado and urged Trump to drop out of the race after the tape was leaked where the then presidential candidate made some vulgar and lewd remarks about women.
“What he said in 2005 is despicable,” Gimenez told DeFede on the weekly public affairs program on CBS4. “Donald Trump needs to step down. I don’t think he is viable as a presidential candidate.”
Insert political cartoon here of Gimenez with his finger 
in the air to see which way the wind blows.
Maybe Trump knows that Grimenez was just pandering to an audience, pretending so he could take the Democratic vote in a publicity stunt during his nonpartisan race against Regalado, a younger, hipper, smarter, funnier, more moderate and more charming female candidate. Grimenez is a good pretender. He has done it many times with voters. Remember the Pet’s Trust? Remember the promise of more trains during his campaign?
Read related: It’s hard to believe Donald Trump and Carlos Gimenez
But, also, Trump and Grimenez have a relationship from before that.
Mayor Giveaway Gimenez — who has never seen a secret, inside deal he didn’t like — wanted to give The Donald our public Crandon Golf Course in 2015. He already had the deal all mapped out and ready to sign when it went public. This was at a time around when his son was representing or ha
d represented Trump in the town of Doral and with the beauty pageant issues and PR. So you know it was a family deal, like most of the recommendations out of his office. But the deal fell apart once the public found out and balked.
So, believe it: Trump has no love for Carlos. Are you kidding? Have you ever seen anyone as punitive as Trump? He wouldn’t forgive that crap! A failed business opportunity from 2015 and a public vote for Hillary in 2016? No way!
No, this endorsement is because Trump is first and foremost a businessman. The party has convinced him that Grimenez has the name rec and the ability to get donations from special interests and pour millions of dollars into this race. He knows that a sitting mayor has a bully pulpit like he does. Trump doesn’t like Carlos, 
but he thinks that Grimenez — despite voting for Hillary in 2016, as this Ana Navarro instagram shows — is his best chance to win that seat back in the House, which he wants desperately. It’s just business. He has to hold his nose and deal with it.
And Ladra doesn’t know how Gimenez is going to hold The Donald’s good graces. He already kowtowed to the sanctuary cities thing and has approved the child immigrant jail in Homestead. But is he going to slide back on climate change now? Can we believe anything he says ever again?
This fake Trump love is not going to fool the true Trump Nation people, or the Hispanic super voters, most of whom are 55 and older, in Miami-Dade, which went blue but had 58% of the Cuban American go to Trump. The grupito, controlled by former Hialeah Mayor Julio Martinez and constitutional lawyer and one-time congressional candidate Lorenzo Palomares, who happens to be the father-in-law of firefighter Omar Blanco, (who announced and filed to run in August of last year) — those people, their people, are not going to vote for Grimenez.
“He does not have the Republican grass roots,” Palomares said.
Read related: It’s Omar Blanco and everybody else vs. Irina Villarino and Frank Artiles
He also does not have the endorsements of some of his very own commissioners and longtime allies because Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Rebeca Sosa, Joe Martinez and Javier Souto have all already endorsed Blanco. That’s going to make for some awkward county commission meetings! But these politicos can’t take it back now. That would be political suicide.
The working firefighter/paramedic also has endorsements from Senator Anitere Flores and former Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a Gimenez ally who lobbies in front of the county commission (one of his clients is the megamall given a green light up in northwest Dade).
Gimenez really waited too long and doesn’t stand a chance in a community that feels betrayed by his 
broken transit promises, so he needs to campaign on the Trump thing almost exclusively, at least for the primary. Hence the recent tweets. But Ladra doubts that Republican voters, especially the uber engaged super voters, are going to fall for it.
Republican voters should also know that Gimenez is the weakest challenger against Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsell-Powell, who can raise as much money as he can. Because not only do a lot of Republicans dislike and distrust Gimenez, but so do a majority of the Democrats and Independents, some of whom he would need in November — and he wouldn’t get.
Unless, of course, Flip Flop Grimenez reverses his position again and supports Medicare for All. Nah, Ladra believes voters in FL26 are smarter than both Trump and Grimenez think.
Donald Trump and Carlos Gimenez together again is fake news business added by Ladra on
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