But the former president’s own mixed record on biofuels could come under scrutiny.
Donald Trump criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for opposing a federal program supporting the ethanol industry, but the tactic could open up the former president’s mixed record on biofuels to scrutiny.
Trump in a campaign speech from Council Bluffs, Iowa, said Friday the state “needs to know” that DeSantis, his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination, “totally despises” ethanol and has been fighting it “for years.”
“Don’t forget, he was a congressman, and he was voting against it and fighting for years to kill every single job supported by this very important industry,” Trump said. “Ending the Renewable Fuel Standard was one of his top priorities as a member of Congress. He wanted to end it. And if he had his way, the entire economy of Iowa would absolutely collapse.”
The remarks seek to tie DeSantis to his previous support of efforts to eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires oil refiners to blend a minimum volume of renewable fuel into the nation’s transportation fuel each year.
It’s a reoccurring political playbook in the influential corn state — one that resurfaced between Trump and President Joe Biden on the campaign trail in 2020 and emerged with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa caucus in 2016.
“I fought for Iowa ethanol like no president in history and ethanol, period, like no president,” Trump said Friday.
The remarks put a microscope on Trump’s own record during his time in the Oval Office. Trump earned praise from biofuels advocates over his move to extend the year-round sale of fuel blends with 15 percent ethanol, known as E15, which he highlighted in remarks Friday, although the effort was eventually struck down by a federal appeals court.
