Ex-Trump Aide Takes Aim at Trump Ahead of Iowa Caucus

Ahead of the Iowa caucus on Monday, a former Donald Trump aide slammed the former president for his legal troubles.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted on four counts in August, accused of attempting to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden in the run-up to the January 6 attack. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. It is one of four criminal cases Trump is facing, which include 91 felony charges, as he campaigns to retake the White House in 2024. He has also pleaded not guilty to all counts in the other three cases.

On Monday, former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin, took to X, formerly Twitter, to note how Republican presidential candidates, Florida Governor Ron De Santis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley have showed up to their respective campaign events.

However, Griffin also noted how one Republican candidate, seemingly referring to Trump, only "popped" into his campaign events between court hearings.

"On Caucus night - kudos to the campaigns that showed up & did the work. DeSantis hit all 99 counties, Haley did dozens of events & turned momentum into a possible 2nd place. Voters deserve candidates who show up to earn their votes. Not those who pop in between court hearings," Griffin wrote on X.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.

In November, ABC News noted the decreased amount of public appearances Trump had made in his campaign since announcing his bid, stating that Trump held 42 campaign events, a stark contrast from DeSantis and another Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, each having hosted well over 100 campaign events at the time.

In addition, in Trump's absence, his campaign has been holding a series of surrogate events featuring top supporters like his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Ben Carson, Trump's former secretary of housing and urban development.

Since launching his campaign, Trump has taken part in 34 campaign events in Iowa compared to DeSantis' more than 160 events.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time Griffin has criticized Trump as she and two other former Trump staffers warned what a second Trump could look like, adding that it represents a danger to democracy if he is reelected.

In a joint interview with ABC's This Week with host Jonathan Karl in December, while speaking alongside former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and former White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Griffin voiced concerns over the idea of another Trump presidency.

"Fundamentally a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it and I don't say that lightly," Griffin said. "We all witnessed him trying to steal a democratic election before and going to historic and unconstitutional lengths to do so and that just shows he is willing to basically break every barrier to get into power and to stay in power, but I'm also very concerned what the term would actually look like."