Trump and DeSantis have a new spat: A Trump-trolling bus in Iowa

Christina Pushaw, who oversees DeSantis’ rapid response team, replied with a photo of Cheung standing by the bus, claiming he was trying to “hitch a ride.” Cheung returned the fire. “Not interested in getting into the creepy Ron van no matter how much candy you offer,” he tweeted.

On Thursday morning, the pro-DeSantis group with the bus outside the Machine Shed placed fliers on cars in the parking lot.

“Iowa protects children with heartbeats … Trump says that’s ‘too harsh,’” they read, a reference to critical comments Trump recently made about DeSantis signing a six-week abortion ban — similar to one on the books in Iowa.

And inside the restaurant, Trump made a couple digs of his own at DeSantis, who earlier that morning got into a testy exchange with a reporter in New Hampshire who asked why he wasn’t holding a public question-and-answer period during his events.

“I see these politicians, they all don’t want to take questions and they read the speech,” Trump said, before holding up a copy of prepared remarks he had largely ignored. “See, here’s the speech I’m supposed to be reading.”

Trump, whose staff had made him aware of DeSantis’ brush-up with the reporter earlier in the morning, according to a person familiar with the discussion and granted anonymity to speak freely, proceeded to take questions from audience members for 20 minutes.

He likewise told the crowd they shouldn’t support DeSantis because the Florida governor said he needed and would serve eight years in the White House to fully carry out his conservative agenda. Trump claimed he would fix the country in six months after returning to office.

DeSantis had a response for that, too.

While mingling with supporters in New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon, a reporter asked DeSantis about Trump’s comments across the country earlier. The Florida governor, without looking over at the reporter, replied in between posing for photos.

“Why didn’t he do it in his first four years?”