As the candidates hit the trail in key early states at the start of a critical summer stretch, their pitches are increasingly about distinguishing themselves from one another<\/p>\n\n\n\n
URBANDALE, Iowa \u2014 Donald Trump<\/a> returned to the campaign trail Thursday with a torrent of attacks on Ron DeSantis<\/a>, mocking his rival\u2019s repeated reminders that he can serve two terms to Trump\u2019s one; belittling DeSantis\u2019s alternating pronunciations of his own last name; and criticizing use of the word \u201cwoke,\u201d a cornerstone of DeSantis\u2019s stump speeches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeSantis renewed his sharpened criticism of Trump, accusing the former president of being \u201cpetty\u201d and dismissing Trump\u2019s vow to turn the country around within six months of taking office. \u201cAnyone who says they can slay the deep state in six months should be asked, \u2018Why didn\u2019t you do that when you had four years?\u2019\u201d he said in New Hampshire, a reflection of his more hostile stance toward Trump since kicking off his campaign earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dueling offensives underscored the state of open warfare between Trump, the clear polling leader in the Republican presidential primary, and DeSantis, who is running a distant second but well ahead of every other contender. Since commencing his campaign in Iowa this week, the Florida governor has stepped up his aggressions against Trump after mostly ignoring him in recent months. He is seeking to counter his rival\u2019s relentless attacks and launch his own, spanning policy and personal fronts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, as the candidates hit the trail in key early states at the start of a critical summer stretch, their pitches are increasingly about distinguishing themselves from one another. Trump explained his strategy in a local radio interview<\/a> with Simon Conway released Thursday: \u201cThis is a war of a certain kind, and what you do is, generally speaking, the person that\u2019s in second place, you go after that person as opposed to the person in eighth or ninth place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking to members of Westside Conservative Club at the Machine Shed restaurant here in Urbandale on Thursday morning, Trump urged attendees to vote against DeSantis because he could accomplish much more quickly what DeSantis has vowed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen he says eight years, every time I hear it I wince, because I say if it takes eight years to turn this around, then you don\u2019t want him, you don\u2019t want him as your president,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019ll take me six months to have it totally the way it was, we\u2019ll have it fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump was responding to a refrain DeSantis has used in Iowa and New Hampshire this week. \u201cIt really requires a two-term presidency to be able to do as much as you need to do,\u201d DeSantis said in Pella, Iowa, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Standing under a pavilion in Salem, N.H., on Thursday, DeSantis re-upped his talking point. \u201cWhen people say they are going to slay the deep state in a day or six months, I\u2019m sorry, this is something that only a two-term president is going to be able to do because the bureaucrats will just wait you out if you\u2019re a lame duck president,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ll wait you out, and as soon as you\u2019re gone they\u2019ll change and go back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Machine Shed event, Trump criticized using the word \u201cwoke,\u201d saying he doesn\u2019t like the term because \u201chalf the people can\u2019t define it, they don\u2019t know what it is.\u201d DeSantis has often used \u201cwoke\u201d as a foil meant to evoke ideas associated with the left, bragging that his home state is where \u201cwoke goes to die.\u201d Trump himself has also used the term \u201cwoke\u201d disparagingly, including in a Thursday Fox News town hall appearance while discussing the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former president also alluded to the Florida governor not taking town-hall-style questions from voters at his recent events. At a New Hampshire event on Thursday, a reporter pressed DeSantis on a similar front, asking, \u201cWhy not take any questions from voters, governor?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAre you blind? So people are coming up to me, talking to me, whatever they want to talk to me about,\u201d DeSantis responded as he walked through the crowd of attendees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Iowa, DeSantis took questions from attendees along the rope line between selfies. But he did not have a structured question-and-answer portion at his events, unlike Trump, who fielded questions both at the breakfast \u2014 which only select members of the press were allowed to enter \u2014 and while speaking to campaign volunteers later in the day in Grimes, when Trump was even more direct in his personal criticism of DeSantis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou don\u2019t change your name in the middle of an election, he changed his name in the middle of the election. You don\u2019t do that, you do it before or after, but ideally you don\u2019t do it at all,\u201d Trump said, referencing the pronunciation of the first syllable of DeSantis\u2019s last name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeSantis has drawn<\/a> attention<\/a> for alternating between pronouncing his last name as \u201cDee-Santis\u201d or \u201cDeh-Santis,\u201d including in his first week as a presidential candidate<\/a>. In his launch video, he used the former pronunciation, while in interviews since, he has used the later pronunciation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked which is correct in an interview with Fox News<\/a>, DeSantis said, \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous, these stupid things. Listen, the way to pronounce my last name \u2014 winner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Returning to Iowa and New Hampshire this week for the first time as an official candidate, DeSantis has used his events to draw implicit contrasts with Trump. The Florida governor has repeatedly said he would have fired Anthony S. Fauci, the former White House medical adviser whom Trump retained even as many conservative voters turned on Fauci and the coronavirus<\/a> restrictions he supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under questioning from the media, DeSantis has lobbed more direct criticisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s so petty,\u201d he told New Hampshire radio host Jack Heath on Thursday, speaking of Trump\u2019s habit of name-calling. \u201cI think it\u2019s so juvenile. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what voters want, and honestly I think that \u2014 that his conduct, which he\u2019s been doing for years now, I think that\u2019s one of the reasons he\u2019s not in the White House now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeSantis was just as blunt in a news conference with the reporters two nights earlier, just after his campaign launch in Clive, Iowa. He suggested Trump was not a team player, saying that if the former president \u201cput the mission first\u201d he would have cheered DeSantis and other Republicans\u2019 victories in Florida last fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also knocked Trump for not publicly weighing in on the debt ceiling<\/a> deal sooner \u2014 \u201cAre you leading from the front, or are you waiting for polls to tell you what position to take?\u201d \u2014 and expressed indignation at Trump saying that former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, \u201cdid better\u201d than DeSantis on preventing deaths related to the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe used to say how great Florida was \u2014 hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship,\u201d DeSantis told reporters. The governor and his allies have repeatedly suggested Trump is adopting some arguments of the political left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump on Thursday was in the midst of a two-day visit to Iowa, which included the recording of the Fox News town hall that aired in the evening. Outside Trump\u2019s morning event, the campaign bus of the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down sat parked in the restaurant\u2019s parking lot. DeSantis supporters outside the breakfast \u2014 a much more intimate setting than where the former president usually speaks at \u2014 put fliers criticizing Trump\u2019s record on abortion<\/a> on the cars of attendees inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geno Foral, 29, a DeSantis supporter who attended the governor\u2019s event in his hometown of Council Bluffs this week, said he wished that DeSantis would criticize Trump more directly in his stump speech and not save it for interviews with the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs of now, that is who he is running against, you know, like he needs to make the ticket before he can face Biden or whoever makes the ticket there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s funny that he said someone shouldn\u2019t have hired Fauci, they should have fired Fauci. We know who he was talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His sister, Kaylee, interrupted to say she disagrees: \u201cI feel like he needs to be the bigger person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geno said he is unsure if DeSantis can overcome Trump in Iowa, where \u201che\u2019s just the icon, the leader, this hero wearing a cape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brandon Sawhill, a Trump supporter who attended the Machine Shed event, said, \u201cI\u2019m hoping for some debates.\u201d Speaking of DeSantis, he said, \u201cWe\u2019ll see how it plays out, but I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to be a valid contender.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the entrance to Manchester Community College where DeSantis had his final stop Thursday, several dozen Trump supporters waved massive flags that said \u201cTrump 2024\u201d and \u201cTrump Country\u201d and \u201cTake America Back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside, Fred Kassam, 47, a telecom engineer, said he wanted to hear what DeSantis had to say but at this point is backing Trump. He said he\u2019s not too concerned about the two men sparring. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have to attack each other. It\u2019s politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n