Floridians have seen plenty of new subdivisions, but a Flagler County woman is now attempting something far more ambitious: a brand-new local county named after the president.
“We’re honoring President Trump and every freedom loving family,” Jen Herold states in a YouTube video touting her plan. “Florida’s first president deserves Florida’s boldest thank you.”
Herold, a Flagler County resident with a doctorate in occupational therapy and a self-described homeschool educator in American government and history, has launched a full-scale campaign to cleave the barrier islands off St. Johns, Flagler, and Volusia counties.
Her proposed Trump County would run roughly 60 miles along the Atlantic, from St. Augustine to Ponce Inlet, stitching together communities including St. Augustine Beach, The Hammock, Flagler Beach, Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach Shores, and Ponce Inlet.
Herold has rolled out a petition, a podcast, YouTube explainers, and a social-media push to sell the idea—not just as a political project, but as a civics lesson in how residents can remake their own government structures.
She estimates the new county would house around 60,000 people, a population she argues is large and cohesive enough to justify its own government.
Central to her pitch is a claim that the barrier islands’ coastal concerns aren’t being adequately handled by their current counties.
In Flagler, the island is divided between two commission districts, and no current commissioners live on the island, she said.
Herold and her husband, Rob Jarowski, also argue the island’s property-tax contribution outweighs the services it receives.
They point to long-running erosion problems and an absence of a fully funded, long-term beach-management plan.
As for the proposed name, Herold says it reflects her admiration for Donald Trump and his national stature.
“We’re hoping that the Trump Coast becomes the rallying point for patriots who want to vacation, retire or come on down and raise kids where America First isn’t just a slogan,” she states in her video.
The surname, she contended, would also boost local property values.
Creating a new Florida county requires an act of the Legislature and the governor’s signature—meaning Trump County remains, for now, a barrier-island thought experiment rather than a budding jurisdiction.
