Of David Blevinsforeign correspondent

Florida’s Lake Worth Beach is 1,000 miles from Washington DC, but it feels like a million.

The sea is turquoise blue, the breeze is whipping the waves, dozens of people are enjoying the sun.

There’s a whiff of coconut from the beach bars, all packed on a warm Saturday morning.

The US election earthquake seems far from their minds, but they are more than happy to talk politics.

“Trump baby”, “Trump of course”, “Trump all day” is the most common response when you ask.

It’s no surprise when the president-elect’s adopted home, Mar-a-Lago, is just around the corner.

They are not naïve about how it is perceived, but the word I heard often was “but”.

“He’s an idiot, I understand,” one local told us, “but his policies are much better.”

“He’s a loose cannon,” said another sun worshiper, “but people like a wild card, world leaders don’t know what he’s going to do next.”

“People said he was going to be a dictator, that he was going to throw Hillary Clinton in jail, but he didn’t,” added a woman standing nearby.

The Sunshine State has gone a deep shade of red — Trump’s win here is up 12 percent since 2016.

On these golden sands, there is talk of a “Florida wave,” a political tide, rolling toward Washington.

Floridians shaped Donald Trump’s campaign and will likely shape his administration.

But even here, at the center of his political orbit, there are fears about what the next four years will bring.

When I asked two middle-aged women what they were most concerned about, they answered in unison: “women’s rights.”

They don’t do small portions in bistros on the beach, every meal served is a mountain.

Their neighbor, the 47th president of the United States, has a mountain of expectations on his shoulders.

I wish I had a dollar for everyone in this Trump town who told me he would “Make America Great Again.”

Democrats have talked a lot about the “soul of America,” but they don’t seem to know what it is.

Maybe it’s the free spirit you find on this coast, far from the corridors of power in Washington.