Trump criticizes DeSantis without pushback at Iowa event, even after new criminal charges
By Tim Reid and Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) — Republican presidential rivals Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis appeared at the same event in the 2024 White House race for the first time on Friday, but even a day after Trump faced fresh criminal charges, it was the former president talking down DeSantis rather than the other way around.
Trump, who has all year relentlessly attacked DeSantis, his nearest rival for the Republican nomination, told a crowd of Iowa Republicans «not to take a chance» on the Florida governor he mockingly calls «DeSanctus», among other nicknames.
DeSantis was seen as a major threat to Trump at the beginning of the year but his campaign has been flagging in recent weeks.
He declined to go after Trump at the Republican Lincoln Day dinner in Des Moines, where the two men and 11 other Republican White House hopefuls were given 10 minutes each in front of 1,200 attendees.
Only one Republican candidate — Will Hurd, a former Texas congressman and a longshot, went after Trump — and he was booed after he said: «Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison».
Trump has been indicted twice this year, and his poll numbers in the Republican presidential nomination race keep going up.
In March, he was charged in New York over falsifying business records over an alleged hush money payment to a porn star, which Trump has pleaded not guilty to.
In June, Trump faced yet more charges when special counsel Jack Smith unveiled a 37-count indictment accusing him of willful retention and improper sharing of national defense information.
Thursday's fresh charges were related to that case, when Trump was charged with ordering a member of staff at his Florida home to delete security videos to thwart an FBI investigation,
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