To secure Iowa, former US President Donald Trump promised at a jubilant rally in Iowa that if re-elected in 2024, he would allow gasoline engines but ban “child sexual mutilation.”
“Under a Trump administration, gasoline-powered engines will be allowed — but child sexual mutilation will be banned if you agree to it,” he told the crowd.
As with his other recent trips to the GOP-held state, Trump campaigned in an area that used to support Democrats.
Trump headlined an afternoon event in Ottumwa where 2,500 people packed the inside of an event hall at the Bridge View Center in Ottumwa.
To secure Iowa, former US President Donald Trump promised at a jubilant rally in Iowa that if re-elected in 2024, he would allow gasoline engines but ban “child sexual mutilation.”
The small city is a center in eastern Iowa and the seat of Wapello County, one of 31 counties that Trump carried in 2016 and that Democrat Barack Obama won four years earlier.
In late September, a ban on gender-affirming care went into effect in Iowa, which Trump described as “child sexual mutilation.”
According to media reports, proponents of the law argued that minors were too young to make “potentially irreversible decisions” about medical care.
While some say that gender dysphoria is a “temporary phase” that children outgrow.
Amid a national enthusiasm for care for transgender children, Republican leaders in Iowa passed Senate File 538, which would ban doctors in Iowa from prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or gender-affirming surgery to transgender people under 18.
Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, said the bill protects Iowa children from permanent changes they may later regret.
Trump, the first Republican to win the county since the Eisenhower administration, had campaigned in northeast Iowa the week before. He is seen here at the rally on Sunday
Trump visited the Vande Voort family farm on Sunday as part of the trail
He and other Republican supporters of the law argued there was not enough data to support gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
“We thought it was extremely important to protect children from this,” Holt told the media on the issue.
“Even if someone is 18 and wants to look at the data and make a decision, they can do that.”
“But we believe the data clearly demonstrated that it was appropriate for us to protect minor children from these procedures.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the law March 22, giving doctors six months to wean patients off puberty blockers or hormones they were giving to transgender youth before the ban took effect on Sept. 18.
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the law March 22, giving doctors six months to wean patients off puberty blockers or hormones they were giving to transgender youth before the ban took effect on Sept. 18
Gender-affirming care refers to medical procedures that confirm a transgender person’s identity.
Trump’s comments come during his second trip to the region in two weeks, where he drew large crowds during his campaign.
Trump hopes he can win voter support in the Jan. 15 election, where more than half a dozen other Republicans are vying for his rise, posing a threat to his popularity within the party.
“With your support on Monday, January 15th, we will win the election in a historic landslide,” Trump told the packed venue on Sunday.
Trump is expected to return to the Waterloo and Cedar Rapids areas next week.
Trump, the first Republican to win the county since the Eisenhower administration, had campaigned in northeast Iowa the week before.
From there he attracted about 1,400 people to rural Jackson County on the Mississippi River and nearly 2,000 to Dubuque County to the north. Like Wapello, Dubuque County was a Democratic stronghold for decades before 2016.
Although aides said they were not specifically targeting the counties Trump flipped in 2016, they noted he had success in eastern Iowa, where manufacturing has declined sharply over the past two decades.
His administration’s renegotiation of the U.S. trade deal with Canada and Mexico continues to be popular.
Rick Anderson and his wife Nancy, who entered the chamber, are among the voters Trump’s campaign would like to persuade to run for the candidate on January 15.
They used to vote Democratic, but switched to Trump in 2016. They have not attended Republican county caucuses in Iowa in the past.
Trump’s comments come during his second trip to the region in two weeks, where he drew large crowds during his campaign
Trump hopes he can win voter support in the Jan. 15 election, where more than half a dozen other Republicans are vying for his rise, posing a threat to his popularity within the party
Anderson, a retired union millwright who owns a small business with his wife, is among the many longtime union members who ensured Wapello County and others in Iowa’s once-robust eastern manufacturing corridor operated reliably Democratic until Trump.
“We like what he says. He says, “Drill, baby, drill,” and that hits my heart. Because what’s wrong with the country is the energy. “Solve this problem and you solve so many other problems,” Anderson said.
“Democrats have lost touch with people like us.”
As Trump maintains a strong lead in Iowa, his Republican rivals are scrambling for support, hoping a strong showing can help them solidify support among non-Trump supporters.
However, recent Five Thirty Eight polls show he remains with a significant lead of 55.1 percentage points over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is in second place with 13.5 percent.
Trump volunteers on site held clipboards full of pledge cards and asked attendees if they would commit to supporting Trump at the caucuses.
Trump arrived in Iowa after a two-day trip to California, where he won six million of his 74 million votes in 2020 while losing the state by 30 percentage points to Democrat Joe Biden.
As Trump maintains a strong lead in Iowa, his Republican rivals are scrambling for support, hoping a strong showing can help them solidify support among non-Trump supporters
Trump arrived in Iowa after a two-day trip to California, where he won six million of his 74 million votes in 2020 while losing the state by 30 percentage points to Democrat Joe Biden
In a fiery speech that delighted Republicans crushed by decades of Democratic control, Trump sharpened his longstanding tough-on-crime message with a call for violent retribution against criminals.
People caught robbing stores should be shot, Trump said to applause.
He raised money during his trip to Orange County, once a bastion of conservatism in Southern California that has become increasingly competitive.
As Trump’s potential Republican challengers squared off in the second primary debate earlier this week, Trump was in another key blue-collar district in the general election battleground of Michigan.
Trump spoke during Wednesday night’s debate in Macomb County, Michigan, north of Detroit, at a non-union manufacturing plant, where he criticized Biden’s push for electric cars amid an auto workers strike.
Trump carried Macomb County twice, after Obama in 2008 and 2012.