Thread by @VanityFair

Over the last four years, Florida reshaped the conservative vision of America—but even before Trump, the state transformed the modern right with the frenzied battle over hanging chads in the 2000 election and the ensuing media spectacle. vntyfr.com/DCmFW5i

During his presidency, Trump turned the state into the de facto homeland of the GOP, surrounded by Floridian allies: Congressman Matt Gaetz; Palm Beach-based Laura Ingraham; Boca Grande–based Tucker Carlson, among others.

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The pecking order in Palm Beach is defined by loyalty to Trump—or at least public silence on the matter. Those who dare to defy—like Ann Coulter and philanthropist Lois Pope—are swiftly iced out by friends and neighbors. vntyfr.com/aFDkzNf

Roger Stone is one of the area’s most notorious characters, and is currently writing a book about the Russia imbroglio—the very incident that nearly landed him in prison for three years until Trump pardoned him before leaving office.

🔗: vntyfr.com/f9g4k77

Over decades, Stone helped turn Florida into a paragon of the American right. One could be forgiven for thinking Stone enjoys all this controversy since he’s done nothing but attract it for years. “Maybe,” Stone ventures, “controversy is attracted to me.” vntyfr.com/0uxHyHa

Stone, like Palm Beach’s other residents, maintain their own versions of reality—that the election was stolen from Trump, the Black Lives Matter movement is a coordinated Marxist revolution, and so on.

🔗: vntyfr.com/f9g4k77

The outside world, in Florida-vision, is always closing in, seething with phantoms under the palms. Not even in Palm Beach, writes @joehagansays, can they escape the stories they tell themselves. Read the full report from the heart of Trumpland: vntyfr.com/5tOVwsv