Campaign Almanac: Trump coming to Iowa next week

Former President Donald Trump will hold events in Iowa next week, shortly after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a campaign kickoff in Des Moines, a campaign official said.

Trump will speak June 1 at a meeting of the Westside Conservative Club, a group of Polk County Republicans that regularly hears from local and national Republican figures. The club's meetings are held at the Machine Shed in Urbandale.

Trump also will meet with faith leaders while in Iowa and the campaign will hold a training for caucus volunteers, the official said.

DeSantis will be making his first visit to Iowa as a declared candidate next week, holding an event in Des Moines on Tuesday and events in Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Pella and Cedar Rapids on Wednesday.

Also on June 1, Trump will participate in a televised town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the network announced this week.

The event will be taped in Des Moines earlier in the day and air at 8 p.m., according to The Hill. It will be Trump’s second town hall on a major cable network after sitting down with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins earlier this month.

Former Vice President Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador. will participate in CNN-hosted town halls in Des Moines next month.

Tim Scott releases ad, plans to attend Iowa town hall

South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican contender for president, launched an ad Friday, depicting America as a place where anyone can succeed on grit and merit.

The ad features clips from Scott’s speech on Monday in which he announced his candidacy for president, saying America is “the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression.”

“We are not defined by the color of our skin. We are defined by the content of our character, and if anyone tells you anything different, they're lying,” Scott says in the ad.

Scott, the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction, has criticized notions of systemic racism and “victimhood” in campaign speeches.

Scott says in the ad that he is “the candidate the far left fears the most.”

“I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control,” he says. “The truth of my life disproves their lies.”

Scott also will join U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra for a town hall at 5:30 p.m. on June 2 in Council Bluffs, his campaign announced Friday.

On June 3, Scott will join several other Republican presidential hopefuls at U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst's annual Roast and Ride fundraiser.

Scott is hovering in the low single digits in Iowa Republican caucus polls, according to FiveThirtyEight.