Donald Trump Skips Major Iowa GOP Event, Drawing Criticism from Iowa Residents and Political Leaders

Former President Donald Trump will not be attending the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday, a major gathering of Republican presidential hopefuls and Iowa GOP voters. The event is expected to draw over 2,000 attendees and will feature Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signing the state’s new six-week abortion ban into law.

Trump’s decision to skip the event has been met with criticism from Thomas Bean, a 23-year-old Iowa resident, who said that Trump is “not doing himself any favors in Iowa.” Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of the Family Leader, also weighed in, telling CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns that Trump is “making a mistake” by not attending.

The summit comes as Republican presidential hopefuls are criss-crossing the first-voting state in the primaries in the hopes of unseating Trump. Trump has been avoiding the sort of small-group, “retail” politicking Iowans have come to expect from candidates. Last week, he began attacking the state’s popular Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, for refusing to endorse him.

The Family Leadership Summit is an annual event hosted by the Family Leader, a prominent evangelical Christian group in a state where those voters make up the majority of likely GOP caucusgoers. It is unclear why Trump has chosen to skip the event, though it is likely that his absence will have an impact on the outcome of the Iowa primaries. Governor Reynolds has said she won’t endorse anyone during the primaries, so it remains to be seen who will benefit from Trump’s absence.