Joe Scarborough, a former U.S. Representative and co-host of Morning Joe, a show on MSNBC, was the featured speaker at this year’s annual Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency. His lecture, “The Presidency After the Election, The Story So Far and What Comes Next,” took place at the Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium on Feb. 20. 

With a near-full audience of predominantly senior attendees, Scarborough repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump and his administration’s actions. While acknowledging the unprecedented nature of today’s political climate, he highlighted the importance of unity and focus.

Scarborough first held a private panel at Live Oak Pavilion with 30 students, who were selected based on recommendations from the chairs of the history, journalism and political science departments, according to history professor Nicole Anslover.

“It has been such a crazy, crazy time. And it seems that events just keep moving more quickly, especially with all the different modes of information, an awful lot of disinformation that everybody has to sort through,” Scarborough said as he opened the discussion of a question-and-answer forum before the event. “It’s very easy to become overwhelmed. And make no mistake, there are people out there who want us to be overwhelmed.”

As a former Republican congressman who served Florida’s first district from 1995 to 2001, Scarborough shared his views on the current political landscape and his main concerns, in particular Trump’s comments on tariffs. His statements referred to foreign affairs, especially those about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator and his claims about taking Gaza and the Panama Canal. 

He also pushed back against the idea that the last election was a clear-cut landslide, emphasizing the complexity of voter decisions.

“And also, even those elections where somebody wins declares a mandate, and everybody on that side acts like it is the end of history, it’s always so much more complicated than what you see in the news and what politicians want you to believe,” he said. “Donald Trump won by 1.5 percentage points in the key swing states. That’s a tight race.”

The discussion soon turned to economic policy, with one student, Brittany Berlin, asking Scarborough about Trump’s handling of inflation.

“A key campaign message for Trump was his ability to control inflation, yet his tariffs are inflationary in nature,” she said. “With a Federal reserve that seems more cautious in terms of interest rate decreases, how will he achieve his goals? And if he does fail, how do you think he will spin it in the media to make it seem like a positive thing for the country?”

Scarborough immediately shared what he thinks is one of the key tools for Trump: distraction. 

“Well, I mean, he’ll distract. He’ll talk about things like taking Greenland from Denmark, taking Gaza from the Palestinians, taking Canada from Canada.” He added that Trump has a long history of shifting public attention through media spectacle to dominate the news agenda. 

Andre Mitchell, a political science major and veteran, raised concerns about Trump’s stance on veteran affairs (VA).

“I saw on the news that the Department of Justice was looking at slashing jobs at the VA, and I’m worried because, as a veteran myself, I know how difficult it already is to get healthcare. So, what can Congress do to help save the jobs while being involved in the process with DOGE?” he said.

Scarborough criticized Congress for failing to hold the executive branch accountable.

“The House controls the checkbook,” he said. “So the first thing Congress needs to do is they need to start standing up, not only for their constitutional rights as members of the House of Representatives but also for their constituents.”

Jonah Hillman, a graduate teaching assistant in the history department, brought up Vice President J.D. Vance’s comments that ‘universities are the enemy’ and asked Scarborough whether he believed the current administration’s stance on higher education signaled a broader shift toward authoritarianism.

Scarborough said that J.D. Vance will “say anything to get to power and stay in power,” and he also mentioned that cutting the funding to universities and education programs won’t go unnoticed and will have consequences.

Throughout the private session, Scarborough constantly emphasized to students the need to critically analyze political rhetoric, avoid generalizations and look beyond partisan narratives.

“We are not a red nation. We are not a blue nation. We are a plaid nation,” he said, stressing that voter decisions often reflect a range of issues rather than a single ideological stance.

The TV host also expressed that his biggest concerns don’t have to do with specific social media posts Trump publishes. What really concerns him, he said, are the democracy threats he sees in Trump’s rhetoric, even though voters seemed to be more focused on other issues like grocery or gas prices.

“We focused on what we thought was extreme rhetoric, what we thought was dangerous rhetoric. We focused an awful lot on democracy and the strengthening of democracy, the protection of elections.” he said “But what we found out after the election was, time and time again, people weren’t focusing on that so much as they were on the price of their groceries, the price of gas, the fact that you went shopping for groceries four years after COVID cost you 20% more.”

The conversation also touched on the challenges facing journalism in an era of misinformation and artificial intelligence-generated content. After being asked about the new era of journalism with social media and AI,  Scarborough shared that the key elements will always be great storytelling and reporting.

“The biggest challenge is AI,” Scarborough said. “AI is going to challenge a lot of industries, but in media, it’s going to blur the lines between truth and fiction more than ever. The key is to develop an independent, distinctive voice, one that people recognize as human, not algorithmic.”

Scarborough later took the stage at the Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium, delivering a speech that touched on many of the topics he had discussed with students.

He opened with a characteristic mix of humor and historical context, drawing from past presidencies’ lessons to illustrate American politics’ cyclical nature. “Every two years, things balance out,” he reminded the audience. “They always do.”

He also urged attendees to focus on the bigger picture rather than short-term political swings. “People said 2008 was the dawn of a progressive era. Two years later, the Tea Party flipped the House,” he reminded the crowd. “This happens again and again.”

Scarborough also talked about the role of media in shaping public perception, sharing that he believes that both the press and the public must do their part in filtering disinformation. “You have got to separate the signal from the ground noise,” he said. “Most of it is just noise.” 

He also warned that social media algorithms are designed to provoke outrage and advised people to engage critically rather than impulsively. As the lecture turned toward foreign policy, Scarborough raised concerns about America’s global standing under the current administration. 

He highlighted Trump’s recent comments about withdrawing from NATO and softening the U.S. stance on Russia. 

“The United States and Europe together define the direction of global democracy. There’s no benefit for the United States abandoning its European allies in favor of Vladimir Putin,” he warned.

As the audience frequently cheered and applauded him, he closed by emphasizing the importance of bipartisan cooperation and historical precedent, citing the working relationship between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill.

“Politically, they would beat the hell out of each other until six o’clock at night. And at six o’clock, they became friends and drank whiskey together,” he said. “That’s how things used to work, and that’s how they should work again.”

Ending with cautious optimism, he quoted Warren Buffett: “Only a fool would bet against the United States of America.”

Sofia De La Espriella is the Editor-in-Chief of the University Press. Email sdelaespriel2022@fau.edu or message her on Instagram @sofidelaespriella for information regarding this or other stories.