NEWTON, Iowa — Bernie Sanders welcomed attacks from President Trump and his team after the camps clashed over the White House's handling of the Iran crisis.

"They are catching on that our campaign is the campaign that can and will defeat them," Sanders said in Newton, Iowa.

This week Sanders, Trump, and their aides exchanged barbs after the president ordered a drone strike in Iraq that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force leader Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

"Since Soleimani was brought to justice, Sanders has refused to acknowledge the American blood on his hands and repeated talking points straight from Iran’s Ayatollahs," a post read on Trump's reelection website.

Sanders has distinguished himself from the rest of the Democratic 2020 primary field by ripping the Trump administration for ratcheting up tensions in the Middle East. He has refrained from calling Soleimani a "terrorist" among other descriptors, like his opponents.

The Vermont senator, whose presidential bid is based on leveling the playing field for working people, slammed the influence of billionaires in modern-day politics, not naming some of his rivals for the nomination, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer.

"That is not democracy. That is oligarchy," he said.

Sanders, who suffered a heart attack last October and hurt his head in the shower last March, also joked about trying not to slip in Iowa's snow this weekend during his three-day swing. Friday's events were canceled due to bad weather.

The socialist's trip to the first-in-the-nation state less than a month out from the caucuses coincides with the release of a new CNN/Des Moines Register poll that showed him leading the pack in a tight four-way race to Iowa's finish line.