Former President Donald Trump lashed out at popular Iowa GOP Governor Kim Reynolds on Monday for not endorsing him, snapping, “I don’t invite her to events!”
Trump visited Iowa on Friday; Reynolds did not attend, and an aide to Reynolds reportedly said she was not invited. Although Reynolds has publicly praised Trump’s chief rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, she has not endorsed any candidate as yet.
“I’m not going to tell Iowans what to do,” Reynolds said of the 2024 campaign. “They’re very good at this process. They’re sizing up the candidate.”
“I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now, she wants to remain ‘NEUTRAL.’ I don’t invite her to events!”
Reynolds rose to her position by succeeding Governor Terry Branstad, whom Trump appointed as Ambassador to China in 2017.
“There is no politician in Iowa with greater sway than Ms. Reynolds, 63, who has overseen her party’s swelling state legislative majorities with an approval rating among Republicans near 90 percent,” The New York Times noted.
Reynolds won her second straight victory as governor in 2022 in a landslide. Last June, Trump referred to her first victory in 2018, telling an Iowa crowd, “I hate to say it, without me, you know, she was not going to win, you know that, right?” The New York Times reported that Reynolds “reacted with disbelief to his comment that she owed him her governorship.”
Still, after Trump was indicted by the Biden DOJ last month, Reynolds blasted the Biden administration, stating, “The federal indictment of former President Trump represents a grave warning sign for the state of equal justice and public trust in government institutions in this country. … the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department will diminish Americans’ confidence in law enforcement institutions for decades to come.”
In recent weeks, Reynolds has spoken positively of DeSantis, stating, “He proudly signed a law that makes it illegal to stop a baby’s beating heart — the same heartbeat bill that I was proud to sign.” Last Thursday, as DeSantis’s wife Casey launched her nationwide “Mamas for DeSantis” campaign, Reynolds did a public interview with her.