Trump and DeSantis Supporters Involved in Screaming Match in Iowa: Report

While the rivalry between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis heats up, their supporters are getting into loud confrontations. As both candidates were in Iowa to attend the state fair, groups of their supporters were screaming and cursing at each other in a Des Moines bar.

Three people who were at The Copper Cup bar on Friday night told Politico that officials connected to DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down got into a verbal altercation with a supporter of the former president.

The bickering lasted “several minutes,” per Politico, and “multiple F bombs were dropped.” The incident reportedly began with comments about Trump hats worn by some of the former president’s supporters. Many of Trump’s fans at the fair donned ‘Back to Back Champ’ Iowa State Fair Hats, falsely implying that he won the 2020 election, when he decidedly did not.

Seeing the hats, two sources said, Never Back Down official Erin Perinne remarked on them. “You know you lost,” Perrine said, according to a witness.

At one point during the argument, a Trump supporter made a “lewd” comment to Perrine, another source told Politico. But the bickering did not escalate into physical violence.

At the state fair, protesters aggressively trolled DeSantis. Before his Saturday interview with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a plane flew over the fair with a banner that said, “Be likable, Ron!” — a reference to a remark Rep. Matt Gaetz made to DeSantis on a leaked tape of the governor’s 2018 gubernatorial debate prep. Later, as Reynolds and DeSantis were speaking on stage on Saturday, protesters yelled at DeSantis to go back to Florida, prompting Reynolds to chide the crowd to be “Iowa nice.”

Liberals also protested DeSantis’ appearance at the fair, drowning out his remarks will loud bells and whistles, with some shouting, “Go back to Florida, pudding fingers!” — an allusion to a Daily Beast story that said he once ate chocolate pudding with three of his fingers rather than a spoon. As he walked through the fairgrounds and manned a grill, DeSantis was greeted with Trump supporters’ chants of “We love Trump!” and “We want Trump!”

As governor of Florida, DeSantis has transformed the state into a safe space for conservative hate. He has revamped the state education curriculum to whitewash slavery and banned AP African American studies classes. He also signed a six-week abortion ban and a bill to prevent gender affirming medical care for minors along with other anti-trans legislation. But his political success has not easily translated to outside the state. His presidential campaign has been languishing for weeks as he loses important donors and campaign staff.

Trump, meanwhile, attended the fair with nearly a dozen members of Florida’s congressional delegation who are supporting him rather than DeSantis, including Gaetz.

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