Seeking to turn a Satanic Temple of Iowa display in the Iowa Capitol into a presidential campaign issue, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is laying the blame at the feet of former President Donald Trump’s administration.
The temple received permission for the display, including an altar and a figure of the pagan idol Baphomet, under a state policy that allows temporary religious displays in the Capitol. There also is currently a Christian nativity scene.
Iowa Republican leaders are divided over the display, which one said was permitted under a policy that calls for allowing all religious displays or none of them. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has endorsed DeSantis in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican caucuses, said Tuesday that “in a free society, the best response to objectionable speech is more speech, and I encourage all those of faith to join me today in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the Nativity scene that will be on display ― the true reason for the season.”
But DeSantis, appearing on a CNN town hall Tuesday night, sided with those who say the satanic display isn’t a genuine religious expression and should be removed. He added that it would not be allowed in the Florida Capitol ― although one was permitted in 2014 during the administration of DeSantis’ predecessor Rick Scott, a Republican who is now one of the state’s U.S. senators.
DeSantis said he believed it was a wrong-headed Trump administration decision that gave the Satanic Temple, a nationwide network headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, standing as a religious organization.
“The Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion, so that gave them the legal ability to potentially do it,” he said.
DeSantis said he was surprised by the 2019 U.S. Internal Revenue Service ruling, which the Satanic Temple told the Associated Press it believed would help it in religious discrimination legal cases and allow it to pursue faith-based government grants.
“[The government] recognized it as a religion, otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to do it; I don’t think that was the right decision,” DeSantis said.
“I don’t know what the Legislature … [or] how they analyzed it, but it very well may be because of that ruling under Donald Trump, that they may have had a legal leg to stand on,” he added. “My view would be that that’s not a religion that the founding fathers were trying to create.”
Trump campaign: DeSantis ‘doesn’t even own his own Bible’
There was no indication in the Associated Press story or other coverage of the ruling that Trump was involved in the decision. The IRS is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury. Steven Mnuchin was Trump’s treasury secretary and Charles Rettig was the IRS commissioner.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung in an emailed statement to the Des Moines Register fired back at DeSantis, mocking his name and his stances on religion and noting DeSantis’ failure so far to gain traction against Trump in the campaign.
“Ron DeSanctus has a lot of opinions on religion for a man who doesn’t even own his own Bible,” Cheung wrote. “This is a sad attempt by a dying candidate in the last throes of his failed campaign, so he’s resorting to blatant lies and outright falsehoods that will finally put an end to his disastrous run.”
Staff writer Brianne Pfannenstiel contributed to this article.
