Donald Trump — Former President Donald Trump devoted the weekend campaigning for the presidency in 2024. He rented a private plane to Iowa to meet with potential GOP conference attendees. At the same time, his Republican opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, took a completely opposite approach and was seen cooking pork chops in Iowa.
As the Republican presidential race for 2024 heated up, Trump and DeSantis convened with hundreds more audience members.
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Ron DeSantis at the fair
The Florida Governor’s visit was rich with traditions, which helped to make the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines a crucial magnet for the presidential campaign when the Democratic Party elected to put Iowa at the top of its nomination timeline in 1972. Republicans made the same adjustment four years later.
Democrats seek to rearrange the sequence of states in the 2020 presidential election.
Donald Trump travels to Iowa
Considering the numerous legal difficulties that have developed against him, Donald Trump has dismissed them as politically motivated, exploiting them in fundraising calls. Despite the fact that he should have been discouraged by the indictments and formalities at traditions, he has managed to draw enormous crowds.
The former president landed in Iowa with a team that looked to be charged with humiliating Ron DeSantis, including Florida senators who had backed Trump. The team was made up of the following Reps:
- Gus Bilirakis
- Byron Donalds
- Matt Gaetz
- Carlos Gimenez
- Brian Mast
- Cory Mills
- Anna Anna Paulina Luna
- Greg Steube
- Mike Waltz
The fair
Throughout the weekend, people crowded in and around the grounds received a barrage of leaflets, but some of the most visible ones seemed to mock DeSantis. They specifically targeted his agricultural credentials while he prepared and flipped pork chops.
“Iowa pork is delicious & provides nearly 1 in 10 working Iowans a job,” the flyers said. “But Ron DeSantis would be an utter catastrophe for Iowa.”
It’s unclear if the fliers were distributed by paid personnel or Trump campaign volunteers. According to CNN, at least one person on the fairgrounds sported a MAGA hat and was clutching a handout with the slogan: “Donald J. Trump for President 2024, INC.”
Donald Trump came to the fair and made his way through the crowd, greeting admirers. People began rejoicing and screaming “USA” as the former president approached the “pork chop on a stick” vendor.
Trump approached the stage when Ron DeSantis was cooking pork chops, drawing cheers from a crowd of supporters and pro-Trump members of Florida’s legislature. The former president lost no time in making a short remark in which he mostly thanked Iowa for its many years of backing.
“We’re going to take care of Iowa,” he said. “You have to stay strong; we have bad, bad people from within.”
Despite the fact that he was the evening’s punchline, Ron DeSantis remained upbeat about the affair. Despite the jeers and shouts, he called the atmosphere “a sign of strength.”
“They know that we will beat Biden and that we will be able to turn this country around, and they do not want that,” said the Florida Gov.
Trump’s indictment
Donald Trump’s legal problems have been a source of contention for some time, and they appear to be worsening as the election season is right around the corner, with another felony charge hanging over his head in the last week.
Fani Willis, an Atlanta-area prosecutor, has called two witnesses to appear in court, signaling that her probe into Trump’s 2020 re-election bid in Georgia is nearing conclusion. Willis plans to charge at least a dozen individuals.
Meanwhile, Trump expects he will be prosecuted and has begun a fundraising campaign in the event that more criminal accusations are brought against him.
Trials and charges for the following are among the three prior indictments against the former president:
- Business fraud charges related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016
- Mishandling classified documents
- Efforts to subvert the 2020 election
Donald Trump has thus far declared himself innocent of all allegations leveled against him.
In contrast, the expected case in the Georgia indictment will involve major differences. Although his 2024 campaign has become an essential component of his legal defense, any trials and convictions in Georgia will be more difficult to navigate if he is elected to a second term, due to presidential powers that normally help in local charges being deemed ineffectual.
“Not only would he not be able to pardon himself, but the pardon process in Georgia means Gov. (Brian) Kemp would not be able to pardon him either,” explained former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.
“There’s a pardon board. So it’s a more complicated process.”
Mariotti also added: “He also would not be able to shut down the investigation in the same way.”
