Former President Donald Trump blasted Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) on Monday amid a report his team has grown frustrated by her closeness to his 2024 presidential competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Reynolds has vowed neutrality in the 2024 Republican primary race, telling the Des Moines Register earlier this year that she wanted to welcome all candidates to her state, which will hold the first nominating contest for Republicans in January. But The New York Times detailed growing concerns in the Trump orbit that the governor has lavished attention on DeSantis, appearing at three of his four events in the state this year and at a campaign event Thursday with his wife.
“I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Monday. “Now, she wants to remain ‘NEUTRAL.’ I don’t invite her to events! DeSanctus down 45 points!”
Reynolds is popular among Republicans in Iowa, but the former president’s comments demonstrate his ongoing demand for loyalty from those he’s supported in the past. She won a full term as governor in 2018 with 50.3% of the vote after Trump held a rally for her, but she surged to reelection with more than 58% of the vote last year.
Still, the Times notes that Reynolds had grown frustrated with the former president after he suggested in June she owed him for her election. She did not appear at his recent rally in Iowa on Friday despite her pledge to try to appear with anyone who invites her to an event. Her team said the Trump camp did not formally invite her to join him.
DeSantis and other 2024 GOP hopefuls rushed to defend Reynolds after Trump’s barb. The Florida governor said she had “earned a landslide re-election because she delivered big results, and she is poised to deliver even more for Iowans in the special session,” adding she was a strong leader who knew how to “ignore the chirping and get it done.”
Other Iowa politicians have backed Reynolds’ decision to remain neutral. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told the Times that her vow was important to retain the state’s first-in-the-nation nomination contest.
“We aren’t going to get involved in campaigns, because we want everybody to feel welcome in Iowa,” Grassley told the Times. “And if the governor were to back somebody, that may discourage other people from coming. Same way for me.”
DeSantis, who is still polling far below Trump in potential match-ups, will need to perform well in the Iowa caucuses, set for Jan. 15, if he is to have a chance to keep the former president from securing his third GOP nomination in a row.
