Donald Trump Jr. was deployed on the campaign trail in Iowa on Thursday, mocking rivals of his father, the former U.N. ambassador. Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, while former President Donald Trump sat in court.
The younger Trump headlined an event at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale, where he was a guest of the Bull Moose Conservative Club, a 45-and-under political group.
He spoke gleefully about former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s “amazing” hot mic moment — in which the now ex-2024 candidate said Haley would get “smoked” by Trump and “she’s not capable of doing this,” as he said DeSantis. he shouted, sounding ‘petrified.’
Trump Jr. said Christie said the quiet part out loud, which was that Haley “hasn’t a chance.”
‘If the deep state could create a candidate in a laboratory, as a fake conservative, that’s what you get Nikki Haley,” said Trump Jr. “She would be a great candidate for the Republican Party in 2008. It’s like Hillary Clinton pretending to be a conservative,” he added with a laugh.
Donald Trump Jr. was deployed on the campaign trail in Iowa on Thursday, mocking his father’s former UN ambassador. Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, while former President Donald Trump sat in court
Trump Jr. said Thursday of Nikki Haley, captured while campaigning in Ankeny, Iowa: “If the deep state could create a candidate in a laboratory, as a fake conservative, then you get Nikki Haley… It’s like Hillary Clinton pretends to be a conservative
He also chided DeSantis for calling Christie to thank him.
“So, wait a minute, so you’re thanking a neo-conservative designed to emulate the American First movement?” Trump Jr. pondered.
Trump Jr. claimed that coverage of the primary race amounted to a “psy-op” because the race wasn’t actually close.
They try to make you have that apathy. Donald Trump wins by 7,472 points. You have to stay home. That’s what they’re trying to do,” the younger Trump said.
He accused Christie, DeSantis and Haley of being “for the Democrats right now.”
“They work for the DC insiders. They want you to stay home so they can postpone that. So the advisor class can say, ‘No, no, no, we have to fight this primary for another six months,'” he continued.
He named former DeSantis super PAC head Jeff Roe and claimed he received “68 percent of every dollar raised.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters Thursday after leaving the New York State Supreme Court as part of his civil lawsuit over his business practices. He returns to Iowa this weekend to campaign in the Hawkeye State ahead of Monday’s caucuses
“So we can continue to enrich ourselves,” Trump Jr. said of political consultants in DC.
Trump’s legal troubles have pulled him out of Iowa twice this week: once for a lawsuit in DC and again on Thursday in New York.
In the meantime, the ex-president has had to secure surrogates to spread his message.
He returns to Iowa this weekend for a series of rallies before Monday’s Iowa caucuses, the first time Republican voters will get their way in the 2024 primaries.
The Real Clear Politics polling average Trump has a 36.4 percent lead over Haley, who has leapfrogged DeSantis in the Hawkeye State in recent days.
She is also gaining ground against Trump in New Hampshire, where the country’s first presidential primaries will take place on January 23 – although the ex-president still has a 14.3 point lead. according to Real Clear.
With that advantage, Trump Jr. also faces President Joe Biden, Trump’s likely rival in the general election, should he become the Republican nominee again.
“I hear about Bidenomics, Bidenomics,” Trump Jr. said. “Hey man, full disclosure, I’m the son of a Manhattan billionaire and if I get bullied going to the grocery store, I’m not supposed to know the difference!”
Trump Jr. recalled a recent trip with his two sons where they went to McDonald’s.
“And it was $39,” he said. “But if I sit there and say, ‘Man, that’s crazy,’ what does it do to someone who makes $60,000 and works really hard.”
Trump Jr. made a fuss about the broader Democratic Party and not just Biden “because, quite frankly, no one believes this guy is in charge of anything.”
“He is not in charge of his own faculties, let alone the decisions,” he continued.
Impersonating his father, he added, “He can’t find his way offstage like that.”
The former president often pretends to be Biden and gets lost on stage during his political rallies.
“Hey, everyone makes a mistake. No one makes a mistake like every day. He’s falling up, he’s falling down, he can’t find his way off the stage, he can’t remember who he’s introducing,” Trump Jr. said.
The younger Trump said Biden spent more time “on vacation” than his father — who often spent weekends away at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida or his golf resort in Bedminster
Biden, in turn, travels to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, as often as possible.
“I mean, you know, everyone likes a little vacation. “When you’re the president of the United States, you don’t go on vacation and you certainly don’t go on vacation 40 percent of the time,” Trump Jr. said.
He also mocked the younger Biden, who was also in the courtroom Thursday, and called Hunter a “crackhead” several times.