DeSantis says Trump will declare the Iowa caucuses stolen if he loses

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said Friday he expected Donald J. Trump to claim the Iowa caucuses were “stolen” if the former president, who currently leads Mr. DeSantis by about 30 points in that state, is subsequently defeated there . month.

“If Trump loses, he will say it was stolen anyway, absolutely,” Mr. DeSantis said, responding to a reporter in New Hampshire who had asked whether Mr. Trump had confirmed the results of the first contest in the Republican presidential primary. on January 15, or from the New Hampshire primary about a week later. “He will try to delegitimize the results. He did that in 2016 against Ted Cruz.”

Mr. DeSantis added that Mr. Trump had protested “even when ‘The Apprentice’ didn’t get an Emmy,” referring to the former president’s former television show.

Throughout the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump and his allies have continued to insist that he defeated President Biden in 2020. The constant chorus of untruths seems to have penetrated the consciousness of many Republicans. Nearly 60 percent of Republican voters believe Biden’s election was illegitimate. an investigation by The Associated Press found earlier this year.

For years, Mr. DeSantis appeared to be playing both sides of the manufactured controversy over the 2020 election. As governor, he created a new police unit to monitor the integrity of Florida’s elections. Before last year’s midterm elections, he campaigned with Republicans who had vociferously denied the results. But he never explicitly endorsed the theory that the election was stolen, and he repeatedly dodged questions about whether he accepted Mr. Biden’s victory.

During his presidential campaign, Mr. DeSantis courted voters from the Trump wing of the Republican Party, making it difficult for him to say the former president was wrong.

Only in August, after being repeatedly pressed during an interview with NBC News, did Mr. DeSantis acknowledge the truth, saying of Mr. Trump: “Of course he lost. Joe Biden is the president.”

In 2016, Mr. Trump claimed to have defeated Mr. Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, in that year’s Iowa caucuses, though in reality he suffered a narrow defeat.

These repeated claims of election fraud, Mr. DeSantis argued during Friday’s appearance in New Hampshire, have led voters to take Mr. Trump less seriously.

“I don’t think people are going to buy it,” he said.

In response to Mr. DeSantis’ comments, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, accused the Florida governor of “reciting Democratic talking points.”

“When Ron’s political career is over in a few weeks, he can act as a democratic surrogate as he shows everyone his true colors,” Cheung said in a statement on Friday.

The Trump campaign has already accused Mr. DeSantis’ team of trying to “rig” the caucuses over comments made by his wife, Casey DeSantis. Last week, Ms. DeSantis encouraged supporters from out of state to participate in the caucuses. But only Iowa residents are allowed to vote in state elections, and Mrs. DeSantis later clarified that she had asked people to volunteer for her husband.

Whether Mr. Trump will ultimately allege fraud in Iowa may remain a hypothetical question. Polls show the former president’s support in Iowa would have to collapse for him to lose. And he’s outpacing his top challengers in New Hampshire average of more than 25 points.

So far during the campaign, Mr. DeSantis has spent more time competing for second place against Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, than he has against Mr. Trump.