New reporting reveals how fraught the relationship between Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and former President Donald Trump has become during the Iowa caucuses.
Former allies, Reynolds and Trump grew apart after she declined to support his candidacy and instead endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Despite Trump’s legal challenges solidifying his popularity in the Republican Party, Reynolds is not backing down.
For Donald Trump, loyalty is everything. It is yet to be seen if Reynolds will face any consequences after The New York Times linked the governor’s publicly verified X/Twitter account with a burner account, @Kimberl26890376. Reynolds used that account to share her unfiltered opinions about DeSantis, Trump and Nikki Haley, as can be seen in the retweets below.
The Times’ explains:
Ms. Reynolds’s little-known Twitter account straddles a line somewhere between public and private. It has her photo in the profile picture and lists the user name as “Kimberly Reynolds” (she usually goes by Kim). But it is in no way linked to either her verified political account or her official governor’s one, and it does not identify her as the governor of Iowa. As of Thursday morning, @Kimberl26890376 had 259 followers, a sign of its obscurity, although the following included a number of influential Iowa political operatives.
Ms. Reynolds has had the @Kimberl26890376 account since 2021, according to X, but a majority of her 58 posts have come in recent months and are almost exclusively about the presidential primary. She has used reposts to promote Mr. DeSantis’s media appearances and amplify criticisms of Mr. Trump. In November, for example, she shared a post from another DeSantis supporter who wrote, “Trump has no loyalty but demands it from everyone else. That’s FEALTY. Which makes sense because these people want a king.”
Reynolds’ office did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.
Her account was eventually deleted after the article’s publication.
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