DeSantis goes after Trump on abortion, COVID-19 and the border wall in an Iowa town hall

Donald Trump “flip-flipped” on abortion, overreached in response to COVID-19 and failed to uphold his campaign pledge to get Mexico to pay for a wall on the southern U.S. border, Florida Gov. DeSantis, who is in a distant second place behind Trump in most national polls in the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, stepped up his case against the former president during a CNN town hall in Des Moines five weeks before the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. “And there’s a lot of voters in Iowa who really care about this, who need to know how he’s changed his position.” DeSantis last month picked up the endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa evangelical leader who has also questioned Trump’s commitment to the anti-abortion movement. He has implied that a Florida law DeSantis signed, which outlaws abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, is “ too harsh.” What to know about Trump’s second term: Staffing the administration: Here are the people Trump has picked recess appointments Follow all of our coverage as Donald Trump assembles his second administration. “The first three years of the Trump administration, the economy’s better than it has been, but that last year with COVID, I think was mishandled dramatically,” DeSantis said.