Former President Donald Trump claims a historic landslide victory in Iowa caucuses on Monday, leading over 30 points against his rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, trailed by former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. While businessman Vivek Ramaswamy announced he is suspending his presidential bid after failing to gather enough votes.
Amid the extreme cold Iowa Republicans went out to vote for their Republican nominees. A total of 120,000 caucus attendees were recorded.
The Associated Press has announced Trump’s victory at 11 pm, placing Desantis second, who was followed by Haley.
This historic victory is good news for Trump as he intends to set the trend in the succeeding Republican primaries. Before the caucus, Trump expressed “see if we can get to 50%” support, and the MAGA supporters delivered. The former president closed the Iowa caucus with 51% of the vote, the highest GOP margin of victory in Iowa.
Haley, who was only placed third, also contributed to Trump’s landslide victory. DeSantis would have dropped out from the race had he failed to secure the second spot.
In his victory speech, Trump thanked his fellow nominees and said, “We are going to come together. It’s gonna happen soon too. It’s gonna happen soon.”
“I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together. We’re all having a good time together. I think they both actually did very well.”
Afterward, the GOP’s leading nominee focused on the business of gathering more support.
He said, “We’re going to drill, baby, drill right away. Drill, baby, drill. We’re going to seal up the border because right now we have an invasion. We have an invasion of millions and millions of people that are coming into our country. I can’t imagine why they think that’s a good thing.”
“I think it’s a group of people that probably larger in number than New York State, and we can’t have that. We can’t have that. It’s not sustainable as a country. It’s horrible. And, you know, they’re coming from prisons and jails,” Trump warned.
“Our country is laughed at all over the world and laughing at us, and they want our country to come back. They want America, you know, they want us to be great again. It’s a very simple MAGA. Make America great again and America first. America First is a very important part of MAGA,” Trump concluded.
Trump’s resounding victory sent chills among his opponents as he displayed a massive show of force. Iowans fully support the former president and believe that these legal attacks he is facing right now are political measures to undermine him, instead of facing him head-to-head through a legitimate election.
Iowa is significant for GOP nominees, as its caucus goes first, which means that whoever wins the Iowa primaries has already placed their names at the head of the line. Additionally, as results come, the number of candidates is also reduced.
