At a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Saturday, former President Trump said the attempts to bar him from the ballot using the 14th Amendment and the media have made him “much more popular” than he was in 2016 or 2020.
Trump told a crowd at his Commit to Caucus event that the attempts by several states to keep him off the ballot next year backfired.
“To be honest with you, I’m much more popular now than I would have been if they didn’t do it,” he said.
Cases were brought forth by voters and advocacy groups seeking to disqualify Trump from running in 2024 and several went to court, including in Michigan, Colorado and Minnesota, for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment stipulates that no one can hold office if they have previously engaged in insurrection against the government. Courts found that Trump could remain on the ballot in all three states.
At the rally, the former president spoke of people who wanted to run against him.
“But disinformation and misinformation, they always say ‘we want to really run against Trump,’” he said. “They want to run against me, they wouldn’t have indicted me four times and fought like hell to keep me off the ballot.”
“But the fake news and the stupid people at the Wall Street Journal editorial board, they said the other day, ‘Well they really want to run against Trump,'” he continued. “Look, they said that in 2016, and we won. They said that in 2020, we did much better than anybody.”
The former president continued by saying he received the most votes of any sitting president in history in the previous presidential election, which he has refused to acknowledge that he lost to President Biden.
Trump also spoke in Ankeny, Iowa on Saturday, where he reiterated his disapproval of the endorsement Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds gave to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the primary.
In both speeches Saturday, Trump slammed rival candidate DeSantis for trailing behind him in the polls.
Both candidates are spending the weekend campaigning in the Hawkeye State as they gear up for the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15.
