Drill, baby . . . but not in Fla.

Say this for the Trump administration — sometimes they put their self-servedness right out there for all of the American people to see.

Last week Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced a plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling, including in areas that were previously off-limits. This week he announced he is removing Florida from consideration for any new offshore platforms, citing the pleas of Gov. Rick Scott that Florida is “unique” and “heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.”

Well, gee — if only Massachusetts had thought of using the coastline to drive our economy!

That is to say, of course, that Florida is unique. Many states are reliant on coastal tourism and commerce as an economic driver, rendering Zinke’s explanation farcical.

So why go out on a limb for Florida?

Well, Florida Gov. Rick Scott is a Republican. But a Republican governor opposing the plan isn’t enough; if it were, Massachusetts today would be celebrating its own carve-out.

But Scott an early Trump supporter. Other Republicans in the Sunshine State stood in opposition to the administration’s plan. And Trump needs Florida much more than he needs Massachusetts, or New York, or California. (A WBUR poll yesterday put his support in the Bay State at 29 percent.)

Then of course there is Trump’s own financial interest in Florida’s coastline, where he owns a waterfront resort. Call it a Republican version of the Kennedy family standing in opposition to the Cape Wind project.

Now, we aren’t reflexively opposed to expanded offshore drilling. We don’t even quibble with Scott’s pitch to take Florida out of it. He was looking out for his own state’s interests.

It’s the naked pandering — and the flimsy explanations for it — we could do without.