--- ---  # Donald Trump Continues Love-Hate Relationship With Iowa by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 6, 2016 1:04 AM UTC  Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event on July 28, 2016 in Davenport, Iowa. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event on July 28, 2016 in Davenport, Iowa.Joshua Lott—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 6, 2016 1:04 AM UTC Donald Trump continued his love-hate relationship with Iowa at a rally in Des Moines Friday. Speaking to supporters at the Iowa Events Center, the Republican nominee criticized the state’s caucuses, but also pledged to keep the state’s vaunted first-in-the-nation status intact. “I don’t love the caucus system by the way. I could do without it,” he told the crowd. “I like to vote! I like when you walk in and vote and leave.” Trump has had a complicated relationship with the Hawkeye State. In a 1999 appearance on _Meet the Press_, he [noted that as a lifelong resident of Manhattan](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/16/how-new-york-values-could-make-or-break-donald-trump/) his “views are a little different than if I lived in Iowa”—a quote that came back to haunt him when primary rival Sen. Ted Cruz ran ads featuring it. Thanks to [a lack of organization](http://time.com/4203690/iowa-caucuses-ted-cruz) in the state, he lost the primary to Cruz, though [recent rallies in Iowa have been well-attended](http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2016/08/05/trump-iowa-clinton-cause-destruction-country/88074356/). At his rally Friday, he again referenced the state, which is a battleground in November. “I’m spending a lot of money folks, I’ll tell you what,” he said. “If we don’t pull this off, I’m blaming Iowa. If we don’t pull this off, I’m going to say I wasted a lot of money, time and energy, that I can tell you.” Donald Trump Continues Love-Hate Relationship With Iowa ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4441596/donald-trump-iowa-money/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4441596/donald-trump-iowa-money/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Continues Love-Hate Relationship With Iowa","datePublished":"2016-08-06T01:04:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:48:45.216Z","description":"'If we don't pull this off, I'm blaming Iowa'","url":"https://time.com/4441596/donald-trump-iowa-money/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Iowa","Mike Pence"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4afc9c6eea540574/6988a16f97cdfff6186ad5a3/gettyimages-584267474-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4afc9c6eea540574/6988a16f97cdfff6186ad5a3/gettyimages-584267474-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event on July 28, 2016 in Davenport, Iowa.","caption":"Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event on July 28, 2016 in Davenport, Iowa.","creditText":"Joshua Lott—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4441596/donald-trump-iowa-money/","name":"Donald Trump Continues Love-Hate Relationship With Iowa"}}]}] ```