In Iowa, Trump says Gaza refugees not welcome

ADEL — As former President Donald Trump rallied support Monday in Iowa — including picking up an endorsement from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird — some who came to his campaign stop in Adel said one major thing separates him from the candidates challenging him for the GOP nomination.

“He does what he says he’s going to do, and that’s what this country needs right now,” said Cyndy Beck, of Emerson. “We don’t need a bunch of liars.”

Don Orban of Adel, who said he’s going to support Trump in the caucuses just three months from now, also said Trump’s record as president, and the belief that he followed through on his promises, has won his support.

“I don’t think anybody else has proven that they’ll do what they say they’re going to do,” he said of the Republicans challenging Trump. “And I think Trump’s not bought and paid for.”

Trump has visited the first-in-the-nation caucus state several times over the last month — including Oct. 7 in Cedar Rapids — to lock down his outsized support in an effort to score a major win in the January caucuses, reversing his second place finish in 2016. Despite millions spent by his opponents on advertising and ground games, Trump has maintained a major lead in Iowa for months, according to polling.

A recent poll from Iowa State University, conducted by Civiqs, found that Trump had support from 55 percent of Iowa Republicans. The next three candidates were distant trailers — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 17 percent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 11 percent and Vivek Ramaswamy at 5 percent.

Despite the records of Trump’s opponents as governors, senators or businessmen, supporters said Trump has the clearest record — because he was already president. It’s a record that, in the eyes of his supporters, is far superior to Democratic President Joe Biden’s.

“I think he’s the only one that’s going to turn anything around, if we’re not too late,” Beck said.

Bird endorses Trump

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Bird, serving her first term in office after unseating a longtime Democrat, announced Monday that she had endorsed Trump, welcoming him to the stage in stops at Adel and Clive and saying he would reverse a number of Biden policies she said have hurt Iowans and other Americans.

“He will secure our border … he will fight the terrorists, he will fix the economy, he will stand up for agriculture, and he will uphold our Constitution and our way of life,” Bird said in Adel.

The endorsement from the high-profile Republican is a major achievement for Trump, who leads the field in polling but has nabbed fewer endorsements from Iowa Republican elected officials than DeSantis.

In Adel, Trump thanked Bird and legislators for their endorsements.

“Now they’re all calling,” he said. “DeSanctimonious bombed,” invoking his nickname for the Florida governor.

Trump has made public his displeasure that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has not endorsed him in the primary. Reynolds has not endorsed any candidate, but she has joined DeSantis on a number of visits and has left open the possibility that she eventually will endorse a candidate.

Trump pitches enhanced travel, immigration ban

At his rally in Clive, Trump said he would reinstate and expand the travel ban he instituted early in his presidency, noting he would not accept refugees from Gaza, which the United Nations has said is in a humanitarian crisis as Israel has urged more than 1 million people to leave northern Gaza.

Hamas, a militant organization in control of Gaza, this month launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing more than 1,000 and taking hostages. Gaza officials say more than 2,500 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes.

Trump claimed the attacks would not have happened if he was president.

DeSantis has also called for rejecting refugees from Gaza. At a campaign event Saturday in Creston, he said that while not all Gaza residents are affiliated with Hamas, "they are all antisemitic."

South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott took a similar stance Monday that he would not accept refugees from Gaza because of difficulties in determining who poses a threat to the United States.

Trump also unveiled a new immigration proposal, saying he would enact new restrictions in an effort to prevent Hamas supporters and other Islamist terror sympathizers from entering the United States.

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Extending prohibitions beyond terrorism, Trump said he would institute an “ideological screening” on all immigrants entering the country. Trump said his administration would bar immigrants who support Islamist terrorism or Hamas, support abolishing Israel and who are “communist, Marxist or fascist.”

In addition, Trump said he would undertake mass deportations of “resident aliens with jihadist sympathies,” and that he would revoke student visas for “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners” at colleges.

“We’ll continue the process that I started in my first four years of stripping citizenship from criminals, terrorists and immigration cheaters and frauds,” he said.

The Trump travel bans in 2017 targeted majority-Muslim countries like Iran, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The restrictions were challenged in court but upheld by a slim majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a news conference Monday, Democratic state Rep. Adam Zabner of Iowa City, who is Jewish and has family in Israel, criticized Trump’s response to the attack on Israel and said Trump failed to support the Jewish community while president. He pointed to Trump’s response to the 2017 antisemitic “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

Trump’s opponents also have criticized him for calling the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah “very smart” in a campaign event last week.

“Trump has consistently failed to denounce antisemitism, he has raised the platforms of white supremacists and neo-Nazis,” Zabner said. “Now, as Israel is being attacked, Trump is airing personal grievances about Israeli leadership and has praised a terrorist group that attacked them.”

Trump calls gag order unconstitutional

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A federal judge Monday issued a narrow gag order on Trump in a case prosecuting his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The order from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington says Trump cannot publicly target potential witnesses in the case, Special Counsel Jack Smith, his staff or court personnel.

Trump has attacked Smith in social media posts and on stage before, calling him “deranged” and a “thug,” and targeted judges and their staff in his criminal court cases.

The four-times indicted former president faces criminal charges in two separate cases over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and charges of business fraud over an alleged “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump skewered the gag order in his remarks Monday. He said his opponents had “weaponized the justice department” and said he would appeal the order.

“A judge gave a gag order today, did you hear that? Which, I believe is totally unconstitutional,” Trump said in Clive. “The judge doesn’t like me too much, her whole life is not liking me.”