DeSantis unveils sharper tongue with Trump critiques

URBANDALE — After months of taking a more passive-aggressive approach with the runaway leader in the Republican presidential primary, Ron DeSantis this past weekend in Iowa was much more direct in his criticism of former President Donald Trump.

During an event Friday with fellow Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, and again on Saturday while talking to reporters at his campaign’s new office in this Des Moines suburb, DeSantis eschewed the vague references to Trump that he and many other candidates have used when talking about the former president — instead offering multiple direct criticisms.

And DeSantis got some help from his new supporter on the campaign trail, Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who also offered a criticism of Trump’s campaign style.

It started Friday during the event hosted by The Family Leader, an Iowa Christian conservative organization. When DeSantis was asked about Republicans who feel he should wait four years instead of running for president now against Trump, DeSantis pounced.

“You compare Donald Trump with me — I delivered on 100 percent of my promises as governor of Florida. There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t deliver on,” DeSantis said. “Quite frankly, if you look at Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 and then compare his rhetoric now, he’s campaigning on the things he promised to do in 2016 and didn’t deliver.”

DeSantis asserted that Trump as president failed to complete construction of a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, did not “drain the swamp” in reference to a pledge to change the political class in the nation’s capital and added to the national debt.

“I think Donald Trump was somebody that came and said he’d fight for us, but we also need somebody that’s going to win,” DeSantis said. “And yes, that involves of course winning the election. It’s my view that, when push comes to shove in November of 2024, if Donald Trump’s the candidate, the American people are not going to go there. That’s my firm belief.”

Later in the event, Family Leader President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Vander Plaats asked the three candidates about the derogatory nicknames Trump assigns to other candidates, including, in DeSantis’ case, Ron “DeSanctimonious.”

DeSantis’ response included a shot fired back at Trump.

“It’s only effective if we stoop to that level. You don’t see me indulging in that,” DeSantis said. “I don’t even know what that name means, quite frankly. But it’s fine. Quite frankly, I’m quite confident the former president couldn’t spell it if he was put to the test.”

Trump declined an invitation to The Family Leader’s event. Vander Plaats this year has been critical on social media of the former president.

Throughout this year, Trump has held a commanding and consistent lead over DeSantis and the rest of the Republican presidential candidates in polling. In rolling averages of Republican presidential primary polls in Iowa, Trump is at 47 percent according to Real Clear Politics and 45 percent according to fivethirtyeight, while second-place DeSantis is at 17.3 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

DeSantis’ focused criticism continued on Saturday at his new Iowa campaign headquarters.

“(Trump) had a chance to come to The Family Leader last night and he didn’t. I think he’s taken positions, attacking things that Gov. Reynolds has done like the Iowa heartbeat bill (a significant restriction on abortions). I think that’s a mistake that he’s attacking that (legislation) as something that’s terrible,” DeSantis said. “I think it’s been a mistake how he’s not willing to engage with Iowans outside of swooping in and doing a speech and then just leaving.”

Reynolds at that point chimed in, agreeing with DeSantis’ criticism of Trump’s campaign style.

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Reynolds recently became the first sitting Iowa governor since 1995 to endorse a presidential candidate before the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses when she endorsed DeSantis.

“That’s the expectations of Iowans,” Reynolds said. “They expect (Trump) to debate. They expect him to show up. They expect him to earn their vote. And he’s just not doing it.”

DeSantis’ campaign has also taken its criticism of Trump online in recent days, highlighting on social media what it calls Trump’s accidents. The tracker highlights moments when, for example, Trump misidentifies an individual or when Trump makes a statement the DeSantis campaign views as a mistake.

A recent example highlighted Trump’s comments, during a campaign event Saturday in Fort Dodge, in which he claimed credit for getting Iowa Republican U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley elected in 2020 and 2022.

A spokesman for Trump’s campaign responded Monday by saying DeSantis is competing for “a distant second place” in presidential primary polls, and said endorsements from Reynolds or Vander Plaats will not help DeSantis. Vander Plaats has not yet endorsed a candidate; some national reports have suggested he is poised to endorse DeSantis, just as Reynolds did.

The statement from Alex Latcham, the Trump campaign’s early-voting states director, spelled Vander Plaats’ last name with a dollar sign in place of the ‘s’ in an apparent reference to the $95,000 paid for advertising and tickets for The Family Leader’s event last summer with presidential candidates.

“Emasculated Ron DeSantis has put all of his time, energy, and resources in Iowa only to see himself compete for a distant second place against Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley,” Latcham said in a statement. “His much touted endorsement from the Iowa governor proved to be an abject failure as polling shows DeSantis gained nothing from her support. No endorsement from any politician — and certainly not from a fraud like Bob Vander Plaats — is going to save his failed campaign in Iowa.”

The Republican Iowa caucuses are Jan. 15.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com