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Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Donald Trump got lots of middle fingers before Iowa vs. Iowa State football game.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has struggled to position himself as a potent foe to Trump, came to Ames to attend the game with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has not endorsed a candidate but often has appeared with DeSantis and his wife, Casey.
As he moved from one tailgate to another, DeSantis was flanked by fans cheering and waving campaign signs from a booth hosted by the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down super PAC.
“We’re having a good time,” DeSantis told reporters. “It’s quite an atmosphere, probably a little bit more civilized than the Florida-Georgia game.”
A large group of excited Cyclone and Hawkeye fans crowded onto a terrace at Jack Trice Stadium Saturday, briefly united in chanting the same name.
“Trump! Trump! Trump!” they cheered — waiting for the former president to emerge from a private suite where he watched the annual in-state rivalry game that pits the University of Iowa and Iowa State University against each other.
The political gamesmanship briefly overshadowed the football game playing out on the field below as a mob of supporters peered around the glass windows, shouting for Trump’s attention and erupting into applause when they caught sight of him.
Trump, who leads the Republican primary field four months ahead of the 2024 Iowa caucuses, hobnobbed with influential Republican donor and casino magnate Gary Kirke inside the suite before emerging to greet the fans who yelled his name and held their cell phone cameras aloft as he departed the stadium.
The pregame campus stop was a reminder of Trump’s dominant position atop a crowded Republican field both in Iowa and nationally. Several of his rivals also attended the game, mingling with fans at pregame tailgates outside the stadium. But Trump got by far the most attention and hasn’t paid a price yet for skipping the closer interactions with voters that are a cherished Iowa political tradition.
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