Former President Donald Trump lambasted Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) on Monday amid a report that his team has grown frustrated with his closeness to his 2024 presidential challenger, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis (R).
Reynolds has sworn neutrality in the 2024 Republican primary race, telling the Des Moines Register earlier this year that she wants 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 Trump’s orbit that the governor paid special attention to DeSantis, appearing at three of his four events in the state this year and at a campaign event on Thursday. with his wife.
“I opened the governorship to Kim Reynolds, and when she fell behind, I APPROVED her, I made big rallies, and she won,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday. . “Now she wants to stay ‘NEUTRAL’. I’m not inviting her to events! DeSanctus loses 45 points!
Reynolds is popular among Republicans in Iowa, but the former president’s comments demonstrate his continued demand for loyalty from those he has 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 won re-election with more than 58% of the vote last year.
Still, the Times notes that Reynolds grew frustrated with the former president after he suggested in June that she owed him her election. She did not show up to her recent rally in Iowa on Friday despite promising to try to show up with anyone who invites her to an event. Her team said the Trump camp had not officially invited her to join.
DeSantis and other 2024 GOP hopefuls rushed to defend Reynolds after Trump’s beard. The Governor of Florida said she had “deserved a crushing re-election because she got big results, and she’s about to do even more for Iowans in the special session,” adding that she was a strong leader who knew how “Ignore the tweets and do it.”
Other Iowa politicians supported Reynolds’ decision to remain neutral. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Times his wish was important to keeping the state’s premier nominating contest.
“We’re not going to get involved in campaigns because we want everyone to feel welcome in Iowa,” Grassley told The Times. “And if the governor supported someone, it might discourage other people from coming. Same for me. »
DeSantis, who always votes well below Trump in potential matches, will need to perform well in the Iowa caucuses, scheduled for Jan. 15, if he is to have any chance of preventing the former president from getting his third GOP nomination in a row.