U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is among 10 Trump Administration officials who’ve been in Iowa the past nine days, but Blanche says he visited the State Fair at Senator Chuck Grassley’s invitation.
“I travel all over the country constantly talking to Americans about whatever’s important. I saw an influx of cabinet officials a few weeks ago in Miami as well,” Blanche said. “I like that there could be a narrative that we run around compensating for fear about what’s going to happen in the election, but it’s not true.”
Blanche spoke with reporters after flipping pork at the Pork Producers’ grill at the Fair — a stop for many national and state politicians. That includes Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who joined Blanche at the grill. “To the extent that there’s a grand plan for Iowa, it’s that this administration cares about ranchers, cares about farmers and I’m not surprised that there are other folks here, too,” Blanche said. “This is literally one of the top 10 most iconic things to do to celebrate America 250.”
Grassley did not appear with Blanche this afternoon, but Blanche noted Grassley’s role in confirming President Trump’s nominees for federal judgeships. “I accepted an invitation to come here from Chairman Grassley when there was still snow on the ground in D.C.,” Blanche said. “…That’s why I’m here 100%.”
Blanche spoke with reporters for about 10 minutes and was asked about the federal investigation of anti-competitive practices by the nation’s largest meatpackers. “You have four major market players that take 85-86% of the market and that presents challenges,” Blanche said. “It’s not per se against the law to be in that situation, but it is something that we need to look at closely.”
Blanche said while there may be similar questions about a lack of competition in the fertilizer industry, the Justice Department has to be careful in deciding what to litigate. “The government’s not supposed to be involved in people’s lives any more than we need to be…but whether we choose to investigate from DOJ’s standpoint, we want to be careful,” Blanche said. “We want to make sure we’re letting American businesses thrive and have success, but at the same time not in a way that harms consumers.”
Blanche began his remarks by saying the Trump Administration is “spending a lot of energy” to make progress on a variety of fronts. “We can’t fix every challenge that Iowans have today,” Blanche said. “There’s a lot of factors that go into the challenges, but what we can do is make sure we focus on the problem and that’s what we’re doing in D.C.”
Other Trump Administration officials who’ve been in Iowa since August 12 include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Secretary of War Pete Hegseth; U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; Iowa native Matt Whitaker, the US Ambassador to NATO; Doug Collins, head of the US Veterans Adminstration; US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer; and Kelly Loeffler, the administrator of the Small Business Administration. The USDA’s Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs and an Assistant Secretary in HHS were also in Iowa this week. Democrats say this parade of Trump Administration officials shows Republicans are worried about how Iowa GOP candidates may fare in the November election.