Trump ends latest Florida visit after casting early vote in Palm Beach

President Donald Trump concluded a less-than-24-hour visit to Palm Beach County on Saturday, Oct. 24, after casting an in-person early vote.

Trump had voted by mail-in ballot twice this year, an action that drew rebukes given his often-stated criticism that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, despite little evidence to support the claim.

The president arrived at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office on Cherry Road, just off Belvedere Road in West Palm Beach, just before 4 p.m., where he and first lady Melania Trump cast their ballots.

He then departed from his adopted home county en route to a rally in Perry, Georgia as midterm campaigning lurches into its final week.

Trump told reporters “everything is good” as he walked inside the elections office. Asked whether he voted along party lines, Trump replied, “Very much so,” according to The Associated Press.

The president wore an “I Voted” sticker after casting his ballot.

The presidential motorcade left the location at 4:36 p.m. and arrived at President Donald J. Trump International Airport, which is across the road from the elections office, minutes later.

Melania Trump arrives with husband, talks about Russia-Ukraine war

The appearance with the first lady allayed recent speculation that she and the president have been distant.

But a question about a localized ceasefire in Ukraine that she helped broker cast attention on the divergent views the first couple seem to hold over the war in eastern Europe, especially as she name-dropped Pope Leo XIV, who the president has pointedly criticized.

“It is great to have the pope’s support, and they are starting a ceasefire on October 27,” she said. “I hope everything goes as it’s planned.”

When asked if she talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, she answered in non-specific terms.

“We talked,” the first lady said. “We signed the agreement.”

The president, though, confirmed she spoke with the leaders of the two combatant countries, and lauded her diplomacy.

“She does better than our professionals,” he said. “I think she’s doing better than the professionals right now. No, she got a ceasefire. This has to do with children and people, elderly people.”

Melania Trump deferred when asked if she would travel to Ukraine saying only that “we will see.”

The president held out the possibility asserting “it could happen.”

Trump’s visit to Florida comes weeks before important mid-term election

While polls continue to show the U.S. electorate concerned with the cost of living and kitchen-table issues, Trump’s visit concluded a week in which he and fellow Republicans diverged over two other topics.

One was the president’s decided tilt in support of Russia in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict just months away from reaching the five-year mark.

Another chasm between the president and numerous GOP officials was his doubling down in backing a controversial political TV commercial aired by Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

The Trump ally launched an ad in which the mother of his Democratic rival, Amy Acton, who was sexually abused by her stepfather, called her daughter a liar. The ad has been roundly denounced by Republicans in Ohio and elsewhere, but Trump steadfastly supported it.

On Russia, the president on Oct. 24 took a more neutral tone than he did earlier in the week, after pursuing a diesel fuel deal to boost Vladimir Putin’s government and deciding to not impose sanctions on Moscow as mandated by a law he signed.

“We’d like to get back to life where Russia and Ukraine make a deal, and then we’d be able to do business with both,” Trump said. “Certainly, we’ll do business with Ukraine and with Russia after this war ends.”

Trump acknowledged speaking with trillionaire Elon Musk, who drew sharp criticism for temporarily disconnecting Ukraine’s military from his Starlink network. Trump did not disclose what the two discussed.

This trip marks one of his shortest weekend visits to Palm Beach over his two nonconsecutive terms. He arrived Friday, Oct. 23, after teasing about a celebration with a Fox News ally and intimating during a rally in Fort Myers that the long-anticipated action in Cuba has been delayed by the stalemated Iran war.

On Saturday, Oct. 24, the president started his day at Trump International Golf Club, but he curiously told reporters he “just hit balls for an hour” while at the club.

“I didn’t want to play,” he said. “I wasn’t in the mood to play.”

Trump said he planned to attend festivity for Sean Hannity at Mar-a-Lago

Departing from Southwest Florida after the Fort Myers rally, the president told reporters traveling with him that “he’s on his way to celebrate at Mar-a-Lago with Sean Hannity and Ainsley,” a reference to Ainsley Earhardt, the “Fox & Friends” personality with whom the network on-air commentator is in a relationship.

Trump did not elaborate other than to call it a “big, beautiful thing.” Hannity has a townhome in Palm Beach and is not a stranger to the Winter White House. Media reports indicated it was a rehearsal dinner for the couple’s upcoming wedding.

In Fort Myers, Trump lauded the state’s midterm GOP candidates, dropped a profanity into his remarks and spoke with renewed bravado about an action in Cuba, a topic that dropped off the radar screen as the war in Iran deepened into a prolonged and seemingly intractable conflict now completing its eighth month.

Trump hosted a delegation of Florida elected officials and administration representatives at the event. They included U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, who tops the state’s midterm ballot.

Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, who the president has insisted is not a candidate for replacement, was in attendance. So were gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast and state Attorney General James Uthmeier.

“I’ve never seen a midterm with this kind of action,” Trump said bullishly. “Let’s go out and do what we do best, which is to win.”

The president’s appearance was in a region of the state that is a politically reliable shade of MAGA red.

Across Florida, Republicans in key U.S. races find themselves in dogfights after three elections in which the Florida delegation in the House grew to a supermajority 20-to-8 count. Even Donalds is in a tight contest, according to election-watchers and a recent in-state poll by the University of North Florida.

The president boasted the U.S. military would take care of Cuba “on our way back from Iran,” words that disregarded the drain that the Middle East war has had on American forces.

“When we come back from Iran, those beautiful ships will pass Cuba,” he said, echoing similar comments during a speech in West Palm Beach on May 1. “Then we send Marco Rubio into finish.”

Then he said of the secretary of state and former U.S. senator from Florida: “We don’t even have to stop. We can just put him in there and he’ll figure it out. He’s a great guy.”

The statement that addressing the economic, political and diplomatic crisis in Cuba would follow resolution in Iran appeared to confirm what foreign affairs analysts have speculated – that what seemed like an imminent change in the Caribbean island nation was stalled by Tehran’s ability to stagnate the conflict.

The comments on Cuba nonetheless received a standing ovation in Fort Myers. Southwest Florida has seen a migration of Cuban exiles and immigrants over the past decade or so.

Beyond that, the rally speech was Trump’s brand of acidic politics, meandering musings, trolling and skits.

He defended his recently ousted White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, and claimed not to “give a s***” about the lawsuits he has faced over expensive, opulent and, in the case of the Reflecting Pool, shoddy work in his Washington, D.C., renovation and expansion construction projects.

Trump also continued a relatively new topic at rallies, talking about male physiques and how men look, this time commenting on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who also was at the rally.

This was the president’s 29th visit to the Palm Beaches this term. After the Georgia event, he was to return to the White House late on Oct. 24.

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump ends latest Florida visit after casting early vote in Palm Beach

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Reporting by Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post

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This story was originally published October 24, 2026 at 12:40 PM.