Trump feud with Iowa GOP, evangelicals deepens with forum snub

On Tuesday, the Iowa evangelical group The Family Leader announced Trump was skipping its Friday leadership summit, making conspicuous the former president’s absence at a forum in Des Moines where six other Republican primary candidates will be interviewed by former Fox personality Tucker Carlson.

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Trump’s snub came just a day after he started accusing Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, of siding with his main rival in the primary, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He also has criticized the six-week abortion bans the two have signed. Iowa’s is the subject of a rare special session of the state Legislature starting Tuesday. …

“The rationale for Trump not coming is that it’s a scheduling conflict,” Vander Plaats said. “But in presidential campaigns, another word for ‘scheduling conflicts’ is ‘choices.’ And he made a choice. I think it’s a mistake. But I also disagreed with his comments criticizing our governor.”

[This is certainly an odd choice. Not only is Trump picking a fight with Republicans in a key state, he’s also picking a fight with evangelicals — crucial to his success in 2016 — and snubbing Tucker Carlson to boot, who’s wildly popular with Trump’s base. Assuming he really does snub the forum (as opposed to creating drama and chaos), what’s the purpose? A win by someone else in Iowa, especially DeSantis, will energize his supporters and create momentum into New Hampshire and South Carolina, where the evangelical vote matters a *lot*. — Ed]

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