Trump takes aim at Bob Vander Plaats
Donald Trump took to Twitter Tuesday to attack one of rival Ted Cruz’s more influential Iowa endorsers, Christian conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats.
"This plays to Trump's judgment and temperament," Vander Plaats told The Des Moines Register in response. "He will burn anybody."
Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, unleashed multiple tweets critical of Vander Plaats, calling the CEO of the Family Leader “phony” and a “bad guy.”
“Why doesn’t phony @bobvanderplaats tell his followers all the times he asked for him and his family to stay at my hotels-didn’t like paying,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
In reply, Vander Plaats tweeted “@realDonaldTrump Still consider you a friend and you still can’t have my endorsement. My friendship isn’t phony.”
Vander Plaats told the Register: “Trump’s friendship and ‘generosity’ definitely come with strings."
Early on when Trump was considering running for president in 2016, he courted Vander Plaats, who is considered influential with Christian conservatives in Iowa and commands the attention of the national political press.
“He invited my wife, Darla, and me to come to New York and he made sure we stayed with him, and he’d be offended if we stayed with anyone but him. And he refused payment,” Vander Plaats said. “The problem is, it didn’t buy my endorsement. He can make a donation to Hillary Clinton and she will show up at his wedding. ... They all do what he tells them to do and the fact is it hasn’t worked with me.”
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On Twitter, Trump followed up by tweeting Vander Plaats “begged me to do an event while asking organizers for $100,000 for himself — a bad guy!”
Vander Plaats replied "@realDonaldTrump you know that's not true. I gave you an introduction and opportunity and you charged the guy $100K. May work in NY not IA."
The back story there, Vander Plaats told the Register, is that in late 2014, he suggested that a good way for Trump to meet Iowans would be to come to the annual real estate conference hosted by Steve Bruere of Peoples Company.
Trump did come, in January 2015. In a sit-down interview with the Register at a dinner Bruere hosted in West Des Moines, Trump said he regretted that he hadn't run himself in 2012, and that he was certain he would've won.
Trump charged Bruere money for his presence at the 2015 conference, even though Vander Plaats said he warned Trump that “he should not be charging to come into Iowa. That is not a good impression."
Peoples Co. officials confirmed to the Register that the company paid Trump $100,000.
Vander Plaats said he was paid nothing for introducing Trump to Bruere, and no donation was made to the Family Leader.
In a third tweet, Trump said "Do you think @SenTedCruz knows about @bobvanderplaats dealings? Actually, I doubt it!"
Vander Plaats officially endorsed Cruz, a Texas Republican, in December. Numerous candidates sought out Vander Plaats' backing due to his role as a religious leader in Iowa, which will hold its first-in-the-nation caucuses Monday.
Cruz and Trump are virtually tied in Iowa, according to multiple polls. The two candidates have increasingly sparred during the last few weeks. Trump has gone after Cruz on multiple fronts, including questioning his eligibility to run for president. Cruz has responded by calling out Trump's past remarks and policy stances that could call into question Trump's conservative credentials.
"What I’d say to Donald, my friend Donald, if he wants to engage in insults, if he wants to engage in attacks, my advice to Donald is to stick with me," Cruz told a crowd in Ottumwa Tuesday.
"Next thing you know, he’s going to say the men and women of Iowa are stupid. But he’d never say that. Those words would never come out of his mouth," Cruz joked, making a veiled reference to comments Trump made in November.
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Vander Plaats said this latest public Twitter spat offers yet another example of how quickly Trump can turn on people. Trump lavishes praise until the person says or does something he doesn’t like, and then he badmouths them — including NBC’s Chuck Todd, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, pollster Frank Luntz, and the Iowa voters Trump called "stupid" when his poll numbers slipped, Vander Plaats said.
"He's trying to discredit my endorsement. I’m sure he’s not happy," Vander Plaats said. "I was warned about this by plenty of others — if you don’t endorse him, watch out."
Vander Plaats said one of the last times Trump spoke to him, "He said, 'I love you, I love your family. You have a great family.' And he followed it up by saying any time I was in New York, I'd have a place to stay. Maybe he meant there was a bridge I could stay under."