NEW: DNC countering Trump’s Iowa visit with billboards citing Ernst’s ‘we all are going to die’ comment

As President Donald Trump visits the Iowa State Fairgrounds, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) purchased billboards nearby slamming him and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) for her “we all are going to die” comment.

The DNC purchased multiple billboards in Des Moines, Iowa coinciding with the president’s visit to the city. With pictures of Trump and Ernst, the billboard reads, “TRUMP: TAKES HEALTH CARE FROM 113,979 IOWANS; SEN. ERNST: WELL, WE ALL ARE GOING TO DIE.”

Billboard illustration provided by Democratic National Committee (DNC)

Ernst earned near-universal scorn in May during a town hall in Parkersburg when, after a constituent said Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” would kill people because of cuts to Medicaid, Ernst responded with the death comment. She later doubled down on the comment the next day in a video posted to Instagram, insulting the town hall attendees by sarcastically assuming they didn’t know about their own mortality.

On Monday, Ernst joined 49 other Republican senators and Vice President JD Vance in voting for Trump’s budget and policy bill. As of 4:30 a.m. EST, the House appeared ready to vote on the bill’s final passage within hours.

The 113,979 number comes from a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released last month. The nonpartisan office found that 17 million total Americans would lose coverage within the next decade because of the budget bill, if it were to stay unamended. And despite the Senate allocating $50 billion in a rural health care fund after concerns of rural hospitals closing, there are still concerns in Iowa that they would close anyway if the bill passed.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) found that the bill would increase the national deficit by at least $3.4 trillion over the next decade due to deep tax cuts for the wealthy.

“As Trump prepares to visit the Iowa fairgrounds today, Iowans will be reminded that Republicans like Trump and Ernst don’t give a damn about whether their own constituents live or die as long as the richest few get richer,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement on the billboards. “Iowans will hold Republicans like Ernst accountable in the 2026 midterms.”

Ernst is up for reelection next year, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball downgraded her chances of winning from “Safe Republican” to “Likely Republican” in part because of her death comments. The leading Democratic contenders for the election include state Rep. (and professional baseball pitcher) J.D. Scholten and former Iowa Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls.

Trump will be at the fairgrounds to kickstart America250, the official semiquincentennial celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.