President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Oval Office. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo DeSantis gets Trump nod as Florida prepares to reopen

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got a big stage at a big moment Tuesday, but not everything went totally as scripted.

One day before DeSantis is set to unveil his plans to reopen the state’s economy, he was at the White House for a public meeting with President Donald Trump, who unexpectedly signaled he was considering a ban on travelers from Brazil — a country that serves as a major feeder to Florida’s tourism-dependent economy.


DeSantis was able to brush off the unscripted moment and used the national platform to showcase what he sees as Florida’s coronavirus progress. The meeting also sent a clear message that DeSantis is once again in Trump’s good graces after their relationship briefly soured.

The Republican governor, who was endorsed by Trump when he ran in 2018, has become the butt of jokes on late-night TV for his handling of the state’s response to the coronavrius, notably over his delay in issuing a stay-at-home order as he waited for explicit direction from the White House.

DeSantis has been on the offensive over the past week, touting a continued decline in hospitalization rates and a stockpile of more than 6,000 ventilators, many of which weren’t needed after initial projections showed hospitals being overrun in the state.

At the White House, where he met with the president in the Oval Office, DeSantis was quick to compare Florida’s approach with other states that imposed more drastic shutdowns.

“When you look at some of the most draconian orders that have been issued in some of these states and compare Florida, in terms of our hospitalization per 100,000, in terms of our fatalities per 100,000, I mean you go from D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois — you name it,” DeSantis said. “Florida has done better.”

But in what appeared to be an unplanned moment, the longtime close political allies seemed to disagree on a travel ban for Brazil. That country, whose residents are a major source of tourists to Florida, is seen as the potential next coronavirus hotspot.

While the two men sat side-by-side, Trump specifically asked about “cutting off Brazil,” a point DeSantis was clearly reluctant to embrace.

The first-term Republican governor said he does support the idea of airlines giving a quick-result Covid-19 test — developed by Abbott Laboratories — to passengers flying from countries with significant outbreaks.

“Well, not actually cut them off,” DeSantis responded when Trump asked about a Brazil ban. “It’s just, if you’re going to fly to Miami, the airlines should give you the Abbott test and then put you on the plane.”

Trump pressed on the idea of a travel ban, asking more broadly if DeSantis “would ever want to ban certain countries?”

DeSantis said a ban could be appropriate if travelers from certain regions were “seeding the United States” with the virus, and then turned the focus to the virus’s domestic spread, especially from New York, a state that has increasingly become part of DeSantis’ talking points in recent weeks.

“If you look at our outbreak, not a lot of it is tied to that,” DeSantis said of international travel. “It's mostly tied to New York City travel.”

In late March, DeSantis dispatched the Florida National Guard to enforce a two-week quarantine for anyone entering the state from the New York region, which continues to be the nation’s largest coronavirus hotspot.

Florida counts on tourism for $3 billion of its annual economy, and Brazilians are an important contributor to that revenue. In 2018, 1.2 million Brazilian tourists traveled to Florida — 8 percent of total international visitors, according to the most recent figures available from Visit Florida, the state’s mostly taxpayer-funded tourism marketing arm.

As a new front opens over whether or not to expand coronavirus-related travel bans, DeSantis also announced during the meeting with Trump that he plans on Wednesday to release the recommendations from his Re-Opening Florida Task Force, a collection of business and political leaders he‘s tasked with envisioning what Florida’s post-coronavirus economy will look like. The task force, which includes a series of industry-specific working groups, held a series of meetings last week.

“They submitted a report to me. I’m going to be reviewing that today,” DeSantis said. “Obviously, we have been thinking about what we are going to need to do and so, we will announce it tomorrow.”

Florida reported 83 new coronavirus-related deaths Tuesday, a single day record, but that could be tied to how the state is reporting; Florida consistently has lower death counts on Sundays and Mondays. Overall, the state had 1,171 deaths and 32,846 total cases as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Trump has played a key role in DeSantis‘ rise to national political presence, from a little-known three-term congressman from south of Jacksonville to governor of the nation’s largest swing state.

The president’s early public support of DeSantis, who is seen as having presidential aspirations, helped his underdog campaign secure the GOP nomination for governor in August 2018. The relationship soured early in DeSantis‘ first year in office.

Florida’s coronavirus response, which has largely followed the White House’s lead, has seemed to mend the relationship for now. Trump has regularly spoken with DeSantis on the phone, and given him shout outs during his briefings, including once again during the Tuesday meeting.

DeSantis is doing a “spectacular job in Florida,” Trump said.