Former CIA agent (and former Congressman) Will Hurd was booed off the stage at the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Dinner Friday night after he insulted former President Donald Trump, claiming that Trump was running not to Make America Great Again, but to stay out of prison. Trump, who likely didn’t want to waste any part of his allotted 10 minutes for the speech by mentioning Hurd, didn’t address the insult then but gave him the attention he so desperately craved on Saturday morning, via Truth Social.

Trump wrote:

In Iowa last night I noticed that a little known, failed former Congressman, Will Hurd, is ridiculously running for President. He quit Congress because it would have been impossible for him to win in his district – he did a really bad job. Anyway, he got SERIOUSLY booed off the stage when he said I was running “to stay out of jail.” Wrong, if I wasn’t running, or running and doing badly (like him & Christie!), with no chance to win, these prosecutions would never have been brought or happened!

Going after the frontrunner at a dinner filled with party loyalists (rather than at your own rally) is always a bad idea; it’s an even worse idea in Iowa, as was shown when Trump received a standing ovation as he took the stage for his speech, the last of the evening.

Hours before the dinner Trump posted a video to Truth Social showing the rousing support of his volunteers in Des Moines.

What is Hurd’s angle? If the establishment wants people to believe there’s no Deep State, there’s no swamp, Hurd is the exact opposite of a presidential candidate you want to have in the race. He didn’t even end his remarks by asking for anyone’s vote. It’s as if he knew there would be cameras there and just wanted to get that one point across, a sort of kamikaze mission except that nobody’s paying attention to him. Most likely he will fade back into irrelevance after that little hit of dopamine.