IOWA:...Not All Republicans In Hawkeye State Ready To Enthrone Trump...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

DES MOINES, Iowa | What with all the noise coming out of this midwestern state, you'd think that all of Iowa's Republicans would be giddily aboard the rolling Trump train. They may ultimately select him as their party's presidential nominee in the upcoming 2024 election, only some are not quite ready to coronate him.

The Hawkeye State, known as The Food Capital of The World, isn't quite pleased with the political plate Trump has served its 3,193,000 residents.

Trump, they say, has come and gone as if some sad-shy Manhattan cabbie new to The Big Apple. And when he has been in Iowa, the former president, they add, has talked mostly about the 2020 election he says was rigged and not said much about what he would do for the country if elected president again.

It's a clash with what some of the mainstream reporting coming out of Iowa. There, reports have it that Donald Trump is way ahead of the fat Republican field, ahead by a massive lead over his closest rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and newcomer businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

We went looking for some of the discontent.

This from a guest column in the Des Moines Register, the state's preeminent newspaper: [ With the first Republican presidential debate in the rearview mirror, people here in Iowa have a clearer idea on where the candidates asking us to caucus for them stand on the issues that matter for our state. Nearly every Republican presidential contender attended the debate to talk about their platform and argue why they’re the best person to beat President Joe Biden in 2024 - with one major exception. 

Similar to many other times, former President Donald Trump didn’t bother to show up. In fact, Iowans haven’t seen much of the former president since he declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. He’s visited Iowa just three times as of Sept. 7, trips where he spent more time talking about personal grievances than his policy platform. 

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, that’s the key difference between the version of Donald Trump that Iowans voted to send to the White House in 2016 and the former president who’s asking for our votes again. This time, he’s not fighting for Iowans or working to deliver policy wins. Instead, he’s fighting for himself. 

And that’s not what voters here in Iowa want in our next president. ]

The writer goes on to note that Trump did accomplish much as president. He appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices and "stemmed the flow of illegal immigration across our southern border." Oh, and he goes to add that the "United States produced more energy than it consumed with the help of the ethanol industry here in Iowa." 

That, however, clashes with Trump's failure to say how he would fix problems Biden has created in his first term.

It'll be much of the same for the rest of the year (fans at a rivalry game between Iowa and Iowa State last Saturday shot Trump the finger when he waltzed into the stadium in Ames), and that will continue until January 15, 2024, when Iowa holds its version of the primary - the fabled Iowa Caucuses.

That's the important target date for his opponents, but Trump would be wise to keep planting positive seeds for the farmers and other residents, 'cause he's alienated more than a few.

It says here that he will likely win the caucus vote, only it's not as if every Iowa Republican has been all-in, all-the-time on his candidacy.

You don't hear much of that from the national news media out of Iowa...

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