Former President Donald Trump will appear at a rally in Iowa on the same day as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) attends a fundraiser in the state.
The news comes as the feud between the two Republican leaders escalates.
In May, Trump will headline a rally at a park in Des Moines, according to reporting by The Associated Press, which cited an anonymous Trump campaign official.
According to the official, the event has been in the planning phase for weeks. That’s because DeSantis, who has maintained a busy travel schedule in recent weeks as he approaches a potential White House bid in 2024, was already scheduled to appear at several fundraisers in the state.
DeSantis, considered Trump’s only significant challenger for the 2024 GOP nomination, plans to attend an annual fundraiser for Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) and then speak at a GOP fundraiser in Cedar Rapids later that day.
The scheduled events come as DeSantis has spent time in Iowa, a critical Republican primary state and other key candidate states as he nears a decision on the Presidential campaign.
Last week, DeSantis traveled to Israel, which could be a confirmation of his foreign policy actions before the primary begins.
However, polls suggest Trump, now in his third campaign for the White House, is the GOP front-runner in 2024, but DeSantis, a former Trump political ally, could be a formidable opponent.
Trump had his largest lead yet over DeSantis, achieving 58 percent to DeSantis’s 21 percent, in last week’s Morning Consult survey of potential Republican primary candidates.
In that poll, DeSantis scored closer to former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also considering a 2024 White House campaign and received 7 percent in the poll.
