“I am working on some special projects with the White House,” Bondi told POLITICO Florida without elaborating. | AP Photo Is Bondi White House-bound? Speculation follows meeting with Trump and NFL greats

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi hasn’t gone Washington. At least not yet.

But her schedule this week in D.C. gives the first tangible signs that she might eventually leave office early to work for President Trump. She pushed a children’s initiative with the Trump administration on Monday, moderates a “Women’s Empowerment” panel Wednesday with the president and first lady and is expected to take a role in helping combat the nation’s opiate-addiction crisis.


Bondi for months has been rumored to be considering a job with Trump, but she has steadfastly refused comment. But she became slightly more vocal Monday after bringing fellow Floridians and former football greats Tony Dungy and Derrick Brooks to Washington to meet with Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.

“I am working on some special projects with the White House,” Bondi, whose term expires in 2019, told POLITICO Florida on Monday without elaborating more.

Less than a day later, the White House announced Bondi would headline its Wednesday “women’s empowerment panel” with top women in the administration: DeVos, United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma.

Despite early buzz she might work as Trump’s drug czar, those close to Bondi have batted down the rumor. But, they say, Trump might still tap her to advise the administration on how the nation should respond to the spread of opiate addiction.

Bondi said she and the White House will reveal more details about their plans at the appropriate time.

So has Bondi shared with the White House what she wants to do next? Perhaps. But those who know her well aren’t sure what she wants to do.

“I don’t ask her because I don’t want to be the one to be blamed for leaking it,” said one Republican familiar with the way Bondi thinks. “If she takes a job in DC, I hope she knows what she’s getting into.”

As part of her new project “to talk about children's issues” with the administration, Bondi on Monday brought Dungy (a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers football coach who has become a kids-rights crusader), Brooks (a former Florida State University and Tampa Bay Buccaneer Hall of Fame linebacker who co-founded a Florida charter school) and All Pro Dads activist Mark Merrill to meet secretaries DeVos and Carson, who also lives in Florida. In between meetings, they dropped by the White House and snapped a picture with President Trump.

Though Brooks runs a charter school and Bondi and DeVos support school choice programs, Bondi said they didn’t discuss that topic.

“Coach Dungy and Derrick Brooks are incredible role models for children and make such a difference for Florida's children,” Bondi said. “They have shared these positive experiences with the White House.”

Still, many expect the Trump administration could or should push a tax-credit school-choice program — first tested in Florida — if Congress decides to redo the tax code. Sen. Marco Rubio has a bill ready to do just that. Florida school-choice activist John Kirtley, a driving force behind Florida’s voucher and tax-credit programs, said the time to get Congress to act is now.

“A tax reform bill could be a good vehicle, as it wouldn't take any funds from existing educational programs,” Kirtley said. “I hope that the administration and Congress looks to Florida's tax credit scholarship program as a model for something at the Federal level.”