Donald Trump says 'we have to get over it' after school shooting in Iowa, pivots to attacks on rivals

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump kicked off a rally in northwest Iowa Friday by sending his “support and deepest sympathies” to the families and victims “touched by the terrible school shooting” in Perry.

“To the entire community, we love you, we pray for you, and we ask God to heal and comfort, really, the whole state,” Trump said in a get-out-the-vote rally in Sioux Center Friday.

“We’re really with you as much as anybody can be. It’s a very terrible thing that happened. It's just terrible,” the leading GOP presidential candidate said. “That’s just horrible. It’s so surprising to see it here."

"But we have to get over it. We have to move forward," the Republican frontrunner said. “To all the relatives, and all the people who are devastated right now, to the point they can't breathe, they can’t live, we are with you all the way.”

Seven students and staff were wounded and an 11-year-old student was killed Thursday when a 17-year-old student opened fire at Perry High School. The school's principal was among those injured.

The gunman, a 17-year-old student, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Trump spent the rest of his nearly two-hour speech slamming Democratic President Joe Biden, as well as Republican presidential opponents Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He also touted trade deals he made with Mexico and China when he was in the White House, action to stem illegal immigration, and support from foreign leaders.

“Ron DeSanctimonious, Nikki Haley, and the rest of the pack will never do what it takes to secure the border,” Trump said.

“Nikki Haley has been in the pocket of the ‘open borders’ establishment donors her entire career — and now Nikki Haley’s campaign is being funded by Biden donors,” Trump said, referring to a report last month indicating that Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and a major Democratic donor, recently gave $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Haley.

Haley and DeSantis, both of whom have urged strong action to secure the southern border, have been fighting for second place in Iowa. The Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed 19% of likely Republican caucusgoers support DeSantis, with Haley at 16%. Trump leads the the state at 51%, the poll showed.

“She opposed my border wall,” said Trump of Haley, who served as his U.N. ambassador. “She condemned my strong border policies. And in 2016, she stabbed the Republican Party in the back by siding with Barack Obama against the Trump travel ban.

“Nikki Haley would sell you out and grant an amnesty to Biden’s illegal aliens her very first week."

Haley told the Register Friday she said building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border was not enough.

"Trump said he would secure the border and he didn't do it," she said.

At a second event Friday evening in Mason City, Trump continued his attacks on DeSantis and Haley, repeatedly calling them disloyal.

"They'll betray you just like they betrayed me," Trump said of his two opponents.

And he launched more broad assaults on prominent Republicans that led the party before his administration, calling on his supporters to help him "rescue the Republican Party from the likes of Mitt Romney and Karl Rove."

"There's no way we're going to let them climb their way back into power, the establishment pawns like Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley," Trump said. "Or even worse, Joe Biden."

Trump, who faces 91 felony charges, also complained about his legal troubles, saying the nation’s legal system is being “politically weaponized.”

“It’s not democracy,” Trump said. “They want to take away my freedom, because they want to take away your freedom.”

He said every time he’s indicted, “I consider it a great badge of honor. I’m being indicted for you.”

Iowa Sen. Lynn Evans, an Aurelia Republican who helped introduce Trump, said he believes the charges against the former president are political.

“Why are they spending so much time on one candidate. They obviously don’t want them on the ballot,” Evans said. His Democratic opponents “don’t believe they can defeat him.”

In visits to Sioux Center and Mason City, Trump encouraged supporters to caucus for him Jan. 15.

“You will send a thundering message straight to crooked Joe Biden, the fake news media, and all the evil and sinister people trying to destroy this nation,” said Trump, who didn’t elaborate on those he considered “evil and sinister.”

Trump, announcing that he had support from pastors in all of Iowa’s 99 counties, made special note of his support for ethanol, Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus, and $28 billion in assistance to U.S. and Iowa farmers to offset losses growers experienced in Trump's extended trade war with China.

With the second-largest ag economy in the U.S., Iowa leads the nation in ethanol, pork and egg production. It’s the country's second-largest soybean grower.

Trump said Iowa supporters must deliver “a massive victory in Iowa.”

South Dakota residents Susan Rohr and her son, Ethan, drove about 60 miles and showed up six hours early to hear the former president talk about his plans for America.

They still weren’t the first there. Some Trump supporters spent Thursday night at the Terrace View Event Center.

“I like his policies,” said Susan Rohr, standing in line with hundreds of other supporters. “I like that he puts America first. I like that he wants to secure our border. I like his economic policies, his plan for energy independence. All those things.”

Trump reiterated his support to “drill, drill, drill” for oil and said America’s middle-class is “being crushed by Biden’s crippling inflation.”

“Violent criminals are running wild in Democrat-run cities, while law enforcement has been weaponized against Christians, conservatives and people of faith,” Trump said.

“We have war in Europe, war in the Middle East, China is threatening Taiwan, Iran is inches away from a nuclear bomb, our military has gone woke, and we are teetering on the brink of World War III,” he said.

Despite their concern and sympathy for the Perry school shooting victims, both Susan and Ethan Rohr said they didn’t want to see tightened gun-control measures.

“You need to look at why people take up arms and go into schools and shoot kids, instead of taking away guns,” said Ethan Rohr, a University of Nebraska student.

Susan Rohr, who bought “bullet-proof school bags” for her three children, said Americans need to “make our schools safer for students. But that doesn’t involve taking guns away from citizens.”

Register Reporter Galen Bacharier contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Donald Trump says 'we have to get over it' after Iowa school shooting