“Good people are getting brainwashed”: These Florida snowbirds are fleeing over Trump’s tariffs
Derek Rauchfleisz and his wife, Jenny, were living a tropical dream in Fort Myers—until America began crumbling around them
Then Trump started turning on Canadians—and Americans were following suit. I ran into one of my neighbours the other day while taking out the trash. He’s a Republican, and he said to me, “We wouldn’t have a problem if Canada wasn’t sending so much fentanyl into our country.” I told him that, for one thing, that would be a problem for the American border patrol, since they’re the ones letting the drugs in. And for another, we know the drugs aren’t actually coming in at all! It’s like George W. Bush and the “weapons of mass destruction” lie. He repeated it over and over, and people believed it. I said all this to my neighbour, and he just walked away. There’s one friend I won’t be getting back.
Related: “We have to fight for one another”—One woman’s week of buying Canadian
And he’s not the only one. We have plenty of American friends here on both sides of the fence, but the Republican ones are behaving like mindless zombies. They watch Fox News obsessively and regurgitate whatever delusional stories Trump or his mouthpieces feed them.
For the sake of preserving our friendships, we try not to talk politics. I was just out fishing with another Republican friend of mine, and we managed to avoid the subject the whole day. We had already gotten into a big argument the day Trump first announced the
tariffs. We were both angry with each other by the time we were done, but we got past it. At a trivia night, I told him, “I love you as a friend—let’s not let this get between us.” He’s a good one. And that’s what bothers me: good people are getting brainwashed.
Our Fort Myers community has plenty of fellow Canadians, and there are Canadian flags flying all down our street now. But I won’t do it myself—I don’t want to start anything with anyone. If I did, I’d fly both flags to show that our two countries should be partners. Instead, I’m flying under the radar.
Still, I can feel the locals turning on us. When we first arrived, the area was very depressed. We felt welcomed since we were spending money. I’ve helped people start businesses, telling them that I’ve got 30 Canadian friends on my block who all need pools cleaned and lawns landscaped.
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The roads are busier these days, and drivers are angry. I’ve seen cars plastered with bumper stickers saying, “Florida is full, don’t come in.” Last year, a woman pulled up next to us and screamed, “You people go back to where you came from!” On another drive, a woman gave us the finger. I don’t know what her problem was, but she was screaming at us from her convertible.
I’d love to tell these people to go screw themselves, but Florida is a concealed carry state. Anybody could be packing a weapon, and they like to use them: we hear about shootings all the time in our neighbourhood. We feel safe behind the walls of the club, but when we leave, we stick to big box stores and tourist areas. At the bar across the road from our community, locals have warned us not to stay out late.