DeSantis Blames Trump For Satanic Altar in Iowa State Capitol: ‘Gave Them Approval’ to be Religion

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis blamed former President Donald Trump for the controversial Satanic altar erected in Iowa’s State Capitol this month, pointing out that the IRS granted the Satanic Temple tax-exempt status in 2019 during the Trump administration.

After Tapper asked DeSantis during a CNN town hall in Iowa on Tuesday whether the altar should remain, DeSantis said:

So it’s interesting, I heard this and then I was like, well how did it get there? Is that even a religion? And lo and behold, 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. So I don’t know what the legislature– what they, 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. My view would be that’s not a religion that the founding fathers were trying to create, but I do you think that IRS ruling– I was really surprised to see that they did that.

Tapper responded, “Not correcting you, but just the context of that is the Satanic Temple applied for tax-exempt status, and the IRS did grant it in 2019. That doesn’t necessarily mean the government supports it, but they did grant it.”

“Yeah, exactly, but they recognized it as a religion because otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to do it,” DeSantis noted. “I don’t think that was the right decision. We’re going to recognize Satan as a religion? That’s wrong.”

Asked, “But you think they should take it down in the Capitol?” DeSantis replied, “I think if they are going to get sued on it, I think you fight that fight, but think it may be — and I don’t know how the legislature analyzed — it very well may be because of that ruling they feel that they may lose. So I don’t know what they did to do it, but yeah.”

He concluded, “In Florida, I don’t think we probably would have had it up.”

Watch above via CNN.