How’s this story for surreal? In a highly Nazi-like, or possibly fascist fashion, Florida’s dictatorial Governor Ron DeSantis tried unsuccessfully for a year to return a trillion dollars in unwanted federal funds “because of the strings attached.” He repeatedly called Biden’s Governor Support hotline, and pressed ‘1,’ then ‘6’, then ‘5’, then pressed zero about twenty times but still couldn’t get the operator.
One time he actually got a person, but they only spoke Nepalese and didn’t understand when Governor DeSantis shouted “we don’t WANT the money!”
Then yesterday, the Governor met one time with Elon Musk and DOGE staff— and it was done. All arranged.

As far as I can tell, only Fox carried the astonishing story yesterday, headlined “DeSantis says Florida returned $878M in taxpayer funds to federal government after meeting with Musk, DOGE.”
We don’t need your stinking handouts.
It’s not just historic. It may be the first time a state has refunded nearly a billion dollars voluntarily after already receiving it, and doing so for ideological and bureaucratic reasons rather than legal necessity. That makes it both unprecedented and politically explosive.