des moines iowa ap former president donald trump plans to headline his largest iowa campaign event in nearly four months with a speech to thousands at an arena in the western part of the state trump will use his appearance in council bluffs on friday to attack his top gop rival florida gov ron desantis for opposing the federal mandate for ethanol a renewablefuel additive that iowa leads the nation in producing “desantis has problematic policy positions that hurt farmers and demonize ethanol” trump spokesperson steven cheung told the associated press ahead of trump’s visit “president trump plans to highlight that” the large republican presidential field has spent a lot of time over the last few months in iowa the leadoff gop caucus state in june more than a half dozen candidates including desantis former vice president mike pence former united nations ambassador nikki haley and us sen tim scott of south carolina attended sen joni ernst’s annual “roast and ride” fundraiser that kicked off a busy summer campaign season don’t miss here are the republicans running for president in 2024 trump campaigned in the des moines area last month meeting with gop state lawmakers influential conservative pastors campaign volunteers and a suburban republican breakfast club that visit came about a week before he was indicted on federal charges stemming from classified records he kept at his palm beach fla home before friday his last large event in iowa was in march when he spoke to more than 1500 people at a theater in davenport and also went after desantis on ethanol he was due to hold an outdoor event in may in des moines with about 5000 attendees expected but his campaign called it off because of a tornado warning it was raining on friday as people lined up to see him although caucus campaigns have become more focused on national party priorities over the past two decades some candidates have continued to portray support for ethanol specifically the federal mandate that the nation’s fuel supply contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels as a litmus test in iowa as a congressman from florida desantis cosponsored a bill in 2017 that would have immediately ended the renewablefuel standard a position consistent with fiscal conservatives who see such mandates as government overreach as a candidate trump has promoted the executive order he signed as president increasing the retail sale of fuel containing 15 ethanol recent history however suggests a lack of support for ethanol may not be disqualifying in 2016 texas sen ted cruz who opposes the mandate won iowa’s republican caucuses handing trump an early defeat in his ultimately successful white house campaign more about the 2024 presidential race biden’s age is figuring ‘prominently’ in the 2024 white house race but here’s what the pundits could be getting wrong desantis campaign says 20 million raised in 6 weeks since announcing his presidential run pence says trump and desantis don’t understand importance of us military aid to ukraine