Ron DeSantis Sides With Man Who Destroyed Satanic Temple Statue At Iowa State Capitol

“Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a ‘religion’ by the federal government,” the Florida governor wrote on X.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) jumped to the defense of a former Mississippi congressional candidate charged with vandalizing a controversial satanic display put up at Iowa’s state Capitol building.

“Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a ‘religion’ by the federal government,” DeSantis wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday. “Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit.”

The Satanic Temple received permission earlier this month to set up a shrine on the first floor of the Iowa State Capitol for two weeks. According to the Des Moines Register, such statues are permitted under state rules governing religious displays in the building.

The shrine included an altar with the temple’s “seven fundamental tenets” and its seal surrounded by electric candles, along with a statue depicting the goat-headed pagan idol Baphomet.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, the Satanic Temple wrote that the statue was “destroyed beyond repair” and showed the damages in a video.