While appearing at a campaign event in Iowa last Friday, Donald Trump spent most of his time attacking his chief rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis whom he claimed is an enemy of ethanol, the Associated Press reported.
During a speech to about 1,000 supporters from Nebraska and Iowa at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Trump attacked DeSantis for opposing the federal mandate on ethanol while serving in Congress while declaring himself the “most pro-farmer president” ever. Trump boasted that as president, he fought for ethanol “like no president in history.”
During the 2016 primary, Trump used the same ethanol line of attack against Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz went on to win the Iowa Caucus.
Trump accused DeSantis of despising ethanol, claiming that as a congressman, he fought against it “for years.” Trump also claimed that by opposing ethanol as a fuel additive, DeSantis was “fighting for years to kill every single job.”
In a statement to the Associated Press, DeSantis campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin called Trump’s attack a distortion of the facts. Griffin said as president, DeSantis would be a “champion for farmers” and would “use every tool available to open new markets.”
But Trump didn’t just attack DeSantis in Iowa.
The former president also turned his wrath on the state’s popular Republican Governor Kim Reynolds.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that the Trump campaign is criticizing Reynolds over her close relationship to both Governor DeSantis and his wife Casey and questioning her assertion that she will remain neutral in the GOP primary race.
In response to the report, Trump took to Truth Social to attack Reynolds, claiming that he is the only reason that she is the Governor.
Trump blasted Reynolds for daring to stay neutral in the primaries after he “opened up the Governor position” by appointing her predecessor to an ambassadorship, and boasted that he never invites Reynolds to his events in Iowa.
