The presidential candidate held a meet and greet at the Iowa Machine Shed Restaurant in Davenport. He was introduced by Governor Kim Reynolds, who officially endorsed him this week.
In his speech, he said he would deport college students with foreign visas who participate in anti-Zionist protests.
"When the blood wasn't even dry off the Jews that were killed in the most deadly attack against Jews since the Holocaust, you would not have seen, in my day, students actually out there celebrating that."
"That's what we've seen, and some of these people really don't even have a right to be in our country," he said. "If you're a foreign student and you're on a foreign visa, and you are making common cause with Hamas, as president, I'm cancelling your visa, and I'm sending you home where you belong."
If elected, he says he would invest more in fossil fuels to cut inflation, and make the country "energy independent."
"We need to use all of our energy resources that we have here, and develop and produce as much of our traditional energy as possible, that is deflationary, the energy permeates everything that goes on through the economy."
He also says he will lower drug costs, and crack down on national health agencies to "drain the medical swamp."
"If you had asked me five or six years ago about NIH (National Institutes of Health) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control), I would've said, you know, yeah they're good, they do a good job, this is helpful, and all this stuff."
"Just having been there on the ground throughout COVID, oh man, you cannot say that. I mean the amount of politics, and ideology, and supporting the narrative."
As governor of Florida, DeSantis received national attention for opposing CDC recommendations during the COVID pandemic, plus his immigration and education policies.
Last month, DeSantis moved about a third of his campaign staff to Iowa, ahead of the Republican caucuses in January.
