Former President Donald Trump has lobbed insults at Iowa’s popular Republican governor, broken with the state’s evangelical pastors, quarreled with an influential Christian leader there, skipped its key political gatherings and has spent less time in the state than most of his top competitors.
But if Iowa Republicans are bothered by any of Trump’s affronts, it has yet to affect his support in the first caucus state on the GOP’s nominating calendar. Heading into Friday, when nearly every Republican presidential contender will descend on Des Moines for the state GOP’s Lincoln Dinner, Trump remains the unquestioned front-runner in Iowa and nationwide. Behind him is a field of candidates straining to navigate a race overshadowed so far by the former president’s popularity among Republicans and his mounting legal problems – two realities that appear intertwined.
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