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.

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]