Sitting at his desk in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Donald Trump responded to questions from reporters, including a question about the loss of Randy Feenstra in Iowa’s Republican primary for governor last week. After ignoring the Iowa gubernatorial primary all year, Trump finally endorsed four-term congressman and putative frontrunner Randy Feenstra five days before voters went to the polls.
“Randy Feenstra has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of Iowa — RANDY WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump declared in a long and rambling, but enthusiastic, post on Truth Social on Thursday, May 29.
Despite the endorsement from Trump, and from other notable Republicans, including former governor Terry Branstad, Feenstra finished 0.77 percentage points behind Zach Lahn, who will go on to face Democrat Rob Sand in November’s general election.
Trump’s comments were the first time he’s publicly addressed Feenstra’s failure.
Based on what he said, the president doesn’t know Lahn’s name, calling him “the other man” and “the other person.” The president appeared to know little about Lahn or Iowa politics, and seemed unaware there were five Republican candidates for governor in the primary, all of whom boasted about how pro-Trump they were.
Trump made it sound like he deserved credit for Lahn’s victory, because Lahn was the most pro-Trump candidate, something the president didn’t know before the primary because he hadn’t been given “proper information.”
“Do you regret endorsing Randy Feenstra, sir?” a reporter asked, after Trump began to take questions from the press following the signing of a presidential proclamation on commercial fishing in the Pacific.
“What?” Trump replied.
“Do you regret endorsing Randy Feenstra in Iowa?” the reporter said.
“I, uh, the man running against him was all-Trump,” the president said. “And the only one out of hundreds of races, hundreds…”
Trump didn’t finish the sentence, and instead turned to look at the people gathered around his desk, and said as an aside, “I’m glad she brought it up.”
“She’s got to bring it up,” he repeated quietly. Trump and members of his administration frequently complain when reporters ask about topics that are embarrassing or inconvenient for them to discuss, rather than Trump’s perceived victories.
“There’s a gentleman in Georgia that I endorsed who is much less Trump than the other man that won, as you know,” Trump continued, turning his attention back to the reporters. “And had I been given the proper information, which I don’t think I was, I probably would have endorsed the other person. But — or not endorsed at all. But I would have endorsed the other person.”
“The other person was much more Trump, as you know, than Randy.”
(The “gentleman in Georgia” is likely Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is running for governor and is one of the two Republicans in Georgia’s June 16 runoff.)
Neither the president nor the reporters seemed to have any further interest in Lahn, Feenstra or Iowa, so they moved on to other topics.
