Former President Donald Trump will campaign Saturday in west-central Iowa as part of his fall push to sign up supporters and volunteers ahead of the state's leadoff caucuses, now less than two months away.
Trump is expected to headline an organizing rally in Fort Dodge, a GOP-leaning hub, the latest in a series of targeted regional stops aimed at seizing on the large crowds the former president draws to press attendees to commit to voting for him on Jan. 15.
The midday event set for Fort Dodge High School would be Trump's sixth Iowa visit since late September. While Trump has led Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley comfortably in polls of likely caucus participants, Trump's campaign has been more aggressive in Iowa than any of the other early-voting states in the Republican presidential nominating calendar.
Speaking on a radio show Thursday to promote his appearance, Trump ripped DeSantis as "doing very poorly" even after winning the endorsement of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who broke with the general practice of Iowa governors not to support a candidate before the caucuses.
"I was really good to her and then she said she was going to remain neutral. And I said, 'That's OK,' but I didn't really want her particularly," he told host Simon Conway.
"Ron is doing very poorly in the polls and I guess he put a full-court press on her," Trump said. "And she did that. And that's fine. I think it's fine. I don't think it's made any difference."
Trump has made regular stops in Iowa, appearing at eight events before audiences totaling more than 16,000, according to Trump's Secret Service detail, in the past eight weeks.
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