Donald Trump took time out of his campaign schedule to hand out pizza to his supporters and even signed the top of an enthusiastic fan.
He made the first of five planned visits to Iowa on Wednesday, speaking to crowds in Maquoketa and Dubuque as he seeks to win the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
But the former president, 77, was later seen handing out pizza to adoring fans at Kathy’s Treehouse Pub & Eatery in Bettendorf.
Trump was filmed handing people boxes, signing autographs and engaging with the crowd chanting “We want Trump.”
It comes as he denies claims he told a staffer to deny any knowledge of secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Donald Trump took the time during the election campaign to distribute pizza to his supporters
The former president, 77, was seen handing out pizza to adoring fans at Kathy’s Treehouse Pub & Eatery in Bettendorf
Trump was seen signing an enthusiastic waitress’s tank top before inking her forearm
On
He was seen picking up pizza boxes and distributing them to the excited crowd. “Take it, man,” the former president is heard telling a fan.
While another man can be heard shouting, “Who wants pizza from Trump,” before the packed audience begins to scream.
Trump then gives a woman a box and says, “Here you go, darling.”
The crowd began chanting “We want Trump” as the former president signed an autograph for a fan.
He was even spotted signing an excited waitress’s top before inking her forearm and making her stick her tongue out in delight.
She was heard saying: “It’s a great honor to have you here, thank you very much.” We love you. “My dad is your biggest fan and so are we all.”
Trump then turned to the crowd and began to stage cheers, handing out high fives and shaking hands.
They screamed his name and sang along to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
It is not the first time that Trump has appeared in a restaurant and addressed his supporters.
He stopped by a local pizzeria in April after giving a long speech in Fort Myers asking fans if they wanted to enjoy the slice he had already bitten into.
Trump visited the Downtown House of Pizza and its owners said they were “truly honored.”
After his appearance at the federal courthouse in Miami in June, the former president also visited the famous Cuban restaurant Versailles.
He offered to buy food for everyone and listened to customers sing “Happy Birthday.”
“Food for everyone!” Trump shouted at the famous restaurant during the surprise stop after pleading not guilty to 37 federal charges related to the mishandling of classified documents.
Earlier on Wednesday, he addressed a crowd of more than 1,000 people in the small town of Maquoketa as part of his campaign.
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The waitress who accepted Trump’s signature was heard telling him: “We are so honored to have you here, thank you so much.” We love you. My dad is your biggest fan and we all are.
Trump 2.0 is different from the 2016 or 2020 version.
Trump 2.0 is retail politics > rallies and events.
Trump 2.0 distributes pizzas to voters in Iowa: “We want pizza from Trump!”
Trump 2.0 is Trump in a bar. Trump at a Dairy Queen.
Trump 2.0 ignores a canned food,¿ pic.twitter.com/2pvkyeujIb
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 20, 2023
“In less than four months, we will win the Iowa caucuses in a historic landslide,” Trump predicted.
He urged those present to support him at the January 15 election rallies and asked them to bring friends.
What was on display was his team’s promised commitment to organize better in Iowa than in 2016, when Trump came in second place, just behind Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Supporters from across northeast Iowa had lined up outside the exhibit building at the Jackson County Fairgrounds hours before Trump’s arrival.
At the beginning of his speech, Trump addressed his defeat in 2016 and blamed his previous campaign team for it.
“They didn’t do the caucus thing very well and I learned a lot,” Trump admitted, adding, “I don’t like second place, though.”
At a second event in Dubuque, Trump faced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he has long considered his main target, as he touted his administration’s efforts to help Iowa farmers and crack down on illegal immigration.
Trump recited a poem he sometimes reads about a woman who invites a sick, frozen snake into her home, only to be bitten.
“This is what is happening in our country,” he said.
His campaign in Iowa followed allegations that he told a staffer to deny any knowledge of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump turned to the crowd and began cheering while handing out high fives and handshakes
Molly Michael began working for Trump in the White House in 2018 and remained his assistant after his departure.
She resigned last year over his alleged refusal to return documents he took from the White House and has since testified before the Jan. 6 committee.
On Tuesday, ABC News reported that she told investigators looking into Trump’s handling of classified documents that he tried to silence her.
After Trump heard last year that the FBI wanted to interview Michael, sources told ABC that Trump allegedly told her, “You don’t know anything about the boxes.”
Michael has become increasingly concerned about Trump’s response to the National Archives’ repeated requests to return the classified documents he took with him, the sources said.
She felt there were many people around Mar-a-Lago who could “easily” refute his public statements that all documents had been returned.
Michael even told Trump that many people, including maintenance workers, had seen the boxes at Mar-a-Lago and knew there were many more than the 15 he claimed.
And she told investigators, according to ABC sources, that Trump knew full well that there were classified documents in the boxes because he was familiar with their contents and had been shown a photo of a storage room containing all of the roughly 90 boxes .
The indictment against Trump for mishandling classified documents and refusing to return them alleges that Trump asked one of his lawyers at the time, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
Molly Michael testified before the House committee on note cards on January 6th
Michael (left) is seen with Johnny McEntee, former director of the Presidential Personnel Office, on May 1, 2020
Stacks of boxes containing secret documents are pictured at Mar-a-Lago
Documents were stored in the bathrooms – with so many boxes, they even piled up in the bathtub
Last June, Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran oversaw a search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and turned over 38 documents to the FBI. He signed a statement confirming that the subpoena for the documents had been fully complied with.
But officials didn’t believe Trump was being honest with them and launched an unannounced search of the property in August, during which another 102 papers were found.
Michael told investigators there were more.
She said she returned to work after the raid – she had not been in her office at the time – and found her desk in disarray. She noticed that to-do lists that Trump had prepared for her were still buried under papers.
The to-do lists were scribbled on the backs of documents with classified notes, she said.
Michael has not commented on the ABC report.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said the ABC report came from “illegal leaks” of the investigation and lacked “proper context.”
Cheung said the Justice Department needed to urgently investigate the leaks.
“These illegal leaks come from sources that completely lack proper context and relevant information,” he said.
“The Justice Department should investigate the criminal revelations instead of conducting their baseless witch hunts.”