CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — There were two unusual — and uninvited — guests on the campaign trail Tuesday with former President Donald Trump: a pair of nine-foot caricature mascots, one resembling Dr. Anthony Fauci, the other a Trump lookalike.
The mascots were clad in surgical masks and wielded a large inflatable fake syringe they used to mimic a vaccination shot administered from Fauci to Trump. Accompanying them and directing their movements was the Iowa political director for Never Back Down, the Ron DeSantis-aligned super PAC.
The mascots and the Never Back Down staffer were first spotted across the street from the Alliant Energy PowerHouse, the site for former President Trump’s Fox News town hall. The mascots meandered side-by-side near the line for the town hall, posing for pictures and dancing amid a crowd of mostly Trump supporters, insinuating to attendees that Fauci’s Covid policies and Trump’s are one and the same.
NBC News then saw the mascot pair pile into a U-Haul truck, and hours later, the costumed trollers reappeared outside the Elk’s Lodge, Trump’s next stop, where he spoke at the Linn County Republican Party meeting.
DeSantis has been outspoken against “Faucism” and regularly touts his record of preventing lockdowns in Florida during the pandemic.
“We refused to let our state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia where people’s livelihoods were destroyed and their freedoms were curtailed,” said DeSantis at an event in Nevada last month.
The contrast with Trump is part of a wider attempt to cut into the former president’s primary lead. NBC News polling shows Trump with support from 51% of national Republican primary voters in June, while 22% backed DeSantis as their first choice.
All in all, Never Back Down has said it will spend up to $200 million to boost the Florida governor’s White House bid, including dedicating $100 million to train door knockers in hopes of high turnout in Iowa and other key early states. It’s not clear how much of that budget is for mascot costume design.
