Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was outshined by former President Donald Trump and was heckled by MAGA Republicans at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday.
Washington Post reporter Joyce Koh posted a video to X, formerly Twitter, of spectators being drawn away from DeSantis to watch former President Donald Trump fly over the event in Des Moines. She wrote that Trump was “already overshadowing DeSantis” even before his arrival.
According to the X account @_johnnymaga, DeSantis was grilling pork when the plane flew by.
Around the same time, ABC News campaign reporter Lalee Ibssa shared footage of MAGA Republicans chanting iterations of “We love Trump!” and “We want Trump!” as DeSantis and his family walked out of a building at the Iowa Fairgrounds. This comes after he has campaigned all over the state nonstop over the past couple of days, Politico noted.
Trump continued to dominate the spotlight after arriving at the event, being greeted by a large crowd and chants of “Four more years!”
Trump’s overshadowing of DeSantis comes as the Florida governor has seen a substantial decline in polling since earlier this year. At the end of March, for instance, Trump’s Real Clear Politics polling average registered at 46 percent, while DeSantis’s stood at 30 percent.
The 45th president has gained 18 points since then despite being three times indicted, with his current average at 54 percent. DeSantis, who had not even announced his candidacy as of March, has seen his support cut in half. It now comes in at just 15 percent while other candidates begin to climb.
What is more, he now finds himself in third place in a national survey released last week. The Cygnal poll shows that Trump has the backing of 53 percent of likely GOP voters, followed by 37-year-old entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 11.4 percent. Another 10.4 percent back DeSansits as he teeters on the edge of single digits.