By Thomas Beaumont | Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump on Friday headlined his largest Iowa campaign event in nearly four months with a speech to thousands at an arena in the western part of the state.
Trump used his appearance in Council Bluffs to attack his top GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for opposing the federal mandate for ethanol, a renewable fuel additive that Iowa leads the nation in producing.
“I’m proud to be the most pro-farmer president that you’ve ever had,” Trump said at the outset of the event aimed at promoting his administration’s agricultural record and touting his oversight of clawbacks of regulations on farmers. “I fought for Iowa ethanol like no president in history.”
He planned to stop by a local Dairy Queen afterward to mingle with workers and customers.
The large Republican presidential field has spent a lot of time over the last few months in Iowa, the leadoff GOP caucus state. In June, more than a half dozen candidates, including DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, attended Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser that kicked off a busy summer campaign season.
Trump campaigned in the Des Moines area last month, meeting with GOP state lawmakers, influential conservative pastors, campaign volunteers and a suburban Republican breakfast club. That visit came about a week before he was indicted on federal charges stemming from classified records he kept at his Palm Beach, Florida, home.
Before Friday, his last large event in Iowa was in March, when he spoke to more than 1,500 people at a theater in Davenport and also went after DeSantis on ethanol. He was due to hold an outdoor event in May in Des Moines with about 5,000 attendees expected, but his campaign called it off because of a tornado warning. It was raining on Friday as people lined up to see him.
Although…
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