Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon warned in a preview interview that she believes President Donald Trump is building structures to avoid leaving office after the 2028 election. She cited what she called the weaponization of ICE, paramilitary-style forces and National Guard deployments as tests of executive power. Nixon said conversations with immigrants who fled authoritarian regimes reinforced her worries. Although she joined the DSA in June, she has publicly rejected parts of the group's platform and the DSA has not endorsed her campaign.
Angie Nixon Warns Trump Is "Laying Groundwork" To Stay In Power After 2028
Screenshot via Scott MacFarlane on X
Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon said in a preview clip of an upcoming interview that she believes President Donald Trump is preparing the infrastructure to refuse leaving office after the 2028 election.
The brief clip, posted on social media by MeidasTouch journalist Scott MacFarlane, shows Nixon arguing that the administration is testing and expanding executive power. She pointed to what she called the "weaponization" of ICE, the deployment of security forces she described as paramilitary, and National Guard movements as examples of actions she believes are being used to probe how far the president can push enforcement and control.
“This guy is laying out his plan,” Nixon said. “He’s laying the foundation and the groundwork to not leave in 2028. He’s weaponized an agency—ICE—and created a paramilitary force designed to terrorize people in their communities to see how far he can go. He’s pushing the limit, the envelope.”
When MacFarlane asked whether she thought Trump would refuse to step down on Jan. 20, 2029, Nixon invoked his response after the 2020 election: “He didn’t wanna leave in 2021! We saw what happened, and so I honestly am concerned about what he’s going to do,” she said. She added that conversations with immigrants who fled authoritarian regimes reinforced her concerns about the trajectory of American institutions.
Nixon joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in June, but has emphasized she does not accept the group's platform in full. She supports some DSA positions—such as creating pathways to citizenship and abolishing ICE—but has publicly rejected calls to defund the police, abolish all prisons, defund the military, or allow noncitizens to vote. “I don't fully align with anybody's full platform 100%, not even the Democratic Party,” she told WLRN.
The Democratic Socialists of America has not endorsed Nixon's Senate campaign.
Context: The comments appeared in a preview of a longer interview and were shared online. Nixon's remarks reflect broader concerns among some Democrats about the durability of democratic norms and the potential for executive overreach if election results are contested.
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