Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American power,

politics and prejudices. The election is over, but the Americano never stops, and there will be a lot to

talk about with the second Trump administration

and so we'll bring bringing you more and more Americano because judging from the feedback that's what you guys

want so please keep listening I am delighted to be joined today by Roger Stone, the long-time political consultant and operator of what some

called the dark arts in American politics. And he is also a Floridian resident. Roger, I say

that you're a resident in Florida, because that's what I want to talk to you about today

is something that I'm very interested in, which is the growing power of Florida on the American right

because looking at the Trump appointment so far, you have several Florida figures

taking very powerful roles. You have Susie

Wiles, who is Chief of Staff. You have Marco Rubio, a secretary of state. You have Matt Gates,

possibly coming in as Attorney General. You have Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor.

From this side of the Atlantic, it looks a little bit to me like a Florida takeover.

Am I seeing things?

Well, first of all, let's kind of start with Susie Wiles.

I mean, Susie Wiles is an enormously capable woman. There was a huge amount of second

guessing of her during the campaign. All of it unfounded. She has a unique relationship with the

president. Those who want to say, oh, she's not sufficiently conservative or she's not a MAGA.

Don't really understand her history.

She first came to the attention of the president because she ran Rick Scott's campaign for governor.

Rick Scott was an outsider businessman, not the choice of the Republican establishment by any

means, won a smashing victory. That brought her to the attention of Donald Trump. In 2016,

...