With 2024 in mind, Donald Trump embarked on Monday, March 13 on thorny ground and, above all, monopolized by the opposition: that of education. The former US president called for more "common sense" in education, during a rally in the state of Iowa.
Since the early 1970s, this agricultural state in the center of the country, with its vast, sparsely populated plains, has kicked off the Republican Party's primary season when its voters vote in small neighborhood assemblies, the "caucuses ". Quite often, the winner in Iowa ends up winning their party's nomination, giving the state "kingmaker" status.
For his first trip of the year to this Midwestern state, Donald Trump chose to talk about education. In particular, he promised to "cut federal funding to any school that talks about 'critical race theory' (an academic concept that has become a catch-all formula for racism awareness programs, editor's note) or transgender madness", s drawing long cheers from the audience. One way to compete with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – considered his main opponent, even if he is not yet a candidate – on his favorite ground.
The rising hard-right star has consistently denounced attempts to "indoctrinate" progressives in American schools and has made education issues his trademark. His maneuvers to restrict the teaching of subjects related to sexual orientation in elementary school had given him the media attention that many presidential candidates would dream of.
