At a crowded event on Monday, former President Donald Trump took aim at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, promising to "defend Iowa ethanol from anyone who wishes to destroy it."
DeSantis, who visited the state for the first time as a potential presidential contender on Friday, frequently voted in Congress to reorganize or reduce subsidies for agricultural products, including ethanol.
Trump claimed DeSantis "fought against it at every point, and he's going to do that again" using the nicknames "DeSanctis" and "DeSanctimonious." Trump also said to his audience that DeSantis reminded him of Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential candidate who lost and is currently a senator from Utah.
But when Trump launched his tirade against DeSantis, which included jabs about votes that would have lowered payments for beneficiaries of Medicare and Social Security, the normally boisterous crowd reacted with relative calm.
That may be a reflection of Iowa GOP voters' unease with Republican-on-Republican political violence at a time when a Democrat, President Joe Biden, is in the White House, including some of Trump's most fervent supporters.
"I intend to get to meet all the presidential candidates and just take them all in," said GOP state Rep. Helena Hayes, who was attending her first Trump speech after attending a meeting of state legislators with DeSantis Friday.
She said she was unsure of whether she would endorse at all, but acknowledged she has some concern about Trump's electability after he lost in 2020.
"I do a little bit because I’ve seen a little bit of that in my district," Hayes said. "It’s always because people say 'I didn’t like his comment here,' or 'he’s too rash here' or 'he said something he shouldn’t have said.' … Usually it’s on a personal basis that I’ve heard in my district."
Still, the crowd at the Adler Theater here was decidedly in Trump's camp, rising often to cheer him and call out to him.
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