Trump will deliver on economy, Pence tells Iowans

DES MOINES, Iowa — Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday afternoon vowed to Iowa Christian conservatives who have been cool to the new administration that President Donald Trump will deliver on his campaign promises to boost the economy.

Speaking at the annual fundraiser of Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Pence told more than 1,400 Iowa Republicans that, thanks to Trump, “American businesses are growing again, they are investing in America again.”

Pence promoted low unemployment and the economy’s overall health, which he attributed to Trump’s cancellation of regulations enacted under President Barack Obama. And, in particular, he described pulling out of the international climate agreement reached in Paris as a show of support for U.S. workers.

It’s “great to have a president who is more concerned with Des Moines than Denmark,” Pence said.

“President Donald Trump chose to put the forgotten men and women of America first,” Pence said at the Central Iowa Expo in rural Boone, Iowa.

But Pence also pressured Iowa’s Senate delegation not to relent on Trump’s centerpiece campaign promise to replace the 2010 federal health care law, despite caution from Ernst and senior U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley that uprooting Obama’s overhaul was unlikely in the Senate.

“We’ve got more work to do,” Pence said. “First and foremost, this summer, this Congress must come together and heed the president’s leadership and we must repeal and replace ‘Obamacare.’”

Though Trump carried Iowa by 9 percentage points in the 2016 election, after Obama won there in 2008 and 2012, Iowa’s disproportionately influential Christian right has become increasingly critical of the president.

“I’m still waiting to see a conservative agenda put forward,” said Iowa Republican Kay Quirk, a retired nurse from the socially conservative northwest region of the state. “I haven’t given up hope by any means. But I’m still waiting.”

Pence suggested Trump had made a good start and noted the confirmation of his nominee to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch.

Trump also “has stood for the sanctity of human life,” Pence said. Trump’s latest budget proposal would prohibit any funding for certain entities that provide abortions, including Planned Parenthood, though federal law already prohibits money for abortion.

But Mike Demastus, a pastor from Des Moines, said that “when it comes to moral issues, he hasn’t moved the needle one notch.”

Demastus pointed to Trump’s announcement Thursday that he would keep, at least for now, the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Tel Aviv. Trump promised during the campaign last year to move the embassy to Jerusalem, the place most closely associated with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Iowa Republicans control both houses of the state Legislature, the governor’s office, both U.S. Senate seats and three of four House seats. Trump also chose Iowa’s longtime Republican governor, Terry Branstad, to be his ambassador to China.

And surveys have shown that the vast majority of Iowa Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing.

But in Iowa more than in other states, there are potential consequences involving that slice of Republicans who are becoming wary of Trump.

Trump finished second to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in Iowa’s leadoff presidential caucuses last year, and many of Cruz’s supporters say they would back him again if he runs.

A number of them, including Quirk, have scheduled a Cruz campaign reunion for this summer.