116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
In Iowa rally, Trump says DeSantis 'despises' ethanol
Council Bluffs rally intended to promote Trump’s agriculture record
COUNCIL BLUFFS — Campaigning in Iowa, former President Donald Trump attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as an enemy of ethanol in his largest campaign event in the leadoff caucus state in nearly four months.
Trump, appearing Friday in Council Bluffs, criticized his top 2024 Republican rival for voting as a member of Congress to oppose the federal mandate for the fuel additive that Iowa leads the nation in producing.
Trump declared himself “the most pro-farmer president that you’ve ever had” at the event, which was aimed at promoting his administration’s agricultural record and touting his oversight of clawbacks of regulations on farmers. He spoke to more than 1,000 Iowans and Nebraskans packed into the event hall inside Mid-America Center, with hundreds more huddled under umbrellas in line outside the arena.
“I fought for Iowa ethanol like no president in history," he told the crowd.
As a congressman from Florida, DeSantis co-sponsored a bill in 2017 that would have immediately ended the renewable fuel standard, a position consistent with fiscal conservatives who see such mandates as government overreach.
“Iowa also needs to know that Ron DeSanctus totally despises Iowa ethanol and ethanol generally,” Trump said, intentionally mispronouncing his rival's name as he routinely does. “He’s been fighting it for years. Don’t forget, as a congressman he was voting against it, and fighting for years to kill every single job."
DeSantis’ campaign described the attack as a distortion. “As president, Governor Ron DeSantis will be a champion for farmers and use every tool available to open new markets,” campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin said in an emailed statement.
Trump spoke for 80 minutes, starting with the agriculture theme but blending his attacks on DeSantis and Democratic President Joe Biden with asides on such subjects as Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine — “I told him: Don't do it." — an impression of French President Emmanuel Macron and a dismissal of climate change science, saying during the hottest week in history that global warming is just going to give more people beachfront property.
He touted his three picks for the Supreme Court, who helped make up the majority that last year voted to overturn Roe v. Wade on abortion and last week voted to end affirmative action in college admissions and cancel Biden’s student debt relief plan.
Noting his own preference for exceptions to abortion bans for victims of rape or incest and to protect the life of the pregnant woman, Trump said the court ruling gave “pro-lifers a tremendous power to negotiate” abortion restrictions.
Trump took three audience questions and then headed to a local Dairy Queen. He teased the onlooking news media as he entered and wondered aloud what DQ's signature “Blizzard” was before handing them out to adoring fans.
Although Iowa's caucus campaigns have become more focused on national party priorities over the past two decades, some candidates have continued to portray support for ethanol — specifically the federal requirement that the nation’s fuel supply contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels — as a litmus test in the state.
Ethanol is a fuel additive blended with gasoline and sold across the country that is usually produced by fermenting corn. The ethanol industry consumes about half of Iowa’s corn crop, and the state leads the nation in corn and ethanol production.
Recent history suggests a lack of support for ethanol may not be disqualifying in Iowa. In 2016, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who opposes the mandate, won Iowa’s Republican caucuses, handing Trump an early defeat in his ultimately successful campaign. Trump carried Iowa by more than 9 percentage points in 2016 and 8.2 points in 2020.
Before Friday, Trump's last large event in Iowa was in March, when he spoke to more than 1,500 people at a theater in Davenport and also went after DeSantis on ethanol. He was due to hold an outdoor event in May in Des Moines with about 5,000 expected, but his campaign called it off because of a tornado warning.