Trump sets agenda in march to November

The strong showing for the former president underscored the success of his campaign in translating the dismay many Republicans feel about how he has been treated by the legal and political system into electoral support.

Former president Donald Trump takes the stage during his Iowa caucus night watch party in Des Moines.

Donald Trump enjoyed a thumping victory in the Iowa caucus on Monday night (Tuesday AEDT), taking more than half of the votes cast and cementing his position as the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president to face off, once again, against Joe Biden in November.

Without attending a single debate during the lead-up to the first Republican nominating contest, the former president enjoyed the biggest margin of victory in the history of the Iowa poll, garnering 51 per cent the votes, making him the favourite to win next week’s New Hampshire primary too.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who began his campaign as the frontrunner almost a year ago but since struggled to gain traction amid constant attacks by the former president, finished a distant second on 21 per cent, followed by former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who scored 19 per cent.

“I really think this is time now for everybody, our country to come together,” Mr Trump said during a victory celebration in Des Moines, praising his two closest competitors as “very credible competition – great competition, actually”.

“The big night is going to be in November when we take back our country.”

The strong showing for the former president, who is facing 91 criminal charges across four indictments including for his role in the January 6 riots in 2021, underscored the success of his campaign in translating the dismay many Republicans feel about how the former president has been treated by the legal and political system into electoral support.

The close result between Ms Haley and Mr DeSantis for second place left both candidates making the claim they were best positioned to become the clear Trump alternative should anything happen to knock the former president out of the race this year.

“We’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa,” Mr DeSantis told supporters at a hotel in West Des Moines, as he noted the many ­attacks Mr Trump and others threw at him.

Ms Haley, speaking at another West Des Moines hotel, congratulated Mr Trump on his victory and pledged to continue campaigning.

“I can safely say Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” she said.

“Do you want more of the same or do you want a new generation of conservative leadership?”  The Arctic conditions on what was reportedly the coldest polling day in Iowa history with temperatures of minus 22C, appeared to have depressed turnout by about a third compared to 2016 levels, when senator Ted Cruz defeated Mr Trump for the nomination.

The Associated Press, quickly followed by other news outlets, ­declared the winner about 30 minutes into voting across the state, well before many Iowans had finished casting their votes or hearing caucus campaign speeches.

“It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote,” a DeSantis spokesman said.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who scored almost 8 per cent of the vote, suspended his campaign and promised to “do everything he can” to support Mr Trump’s third bid for the White House.

“We did not achieve our goal tonight & we need an America-First patriot in the White House. The people spoke loud and clear about who they want,” he posted on social media.

The strong prospects for a Trump triumph, predicated by practically all opinion polls, was clear at Emerson Elementary School in Indianola, about 30km south of Des Moines, where most of the 160 caucus-goers voted for the former president.

Joe Cooley, 49, a local inspector for a welding company, said the former president was “his own man, he’s going to work for us”.

“The others are bought off, with big money behind them; they’re going to work for themselves and not us,” he told The Australian, ­referring to Ms Haley and Mr DeSantis.

Cody, a 29-year-old farmer who declined to give his surname and grew up just outside Indianola on a family-owned cattle and soybean farm, said life was better under Mr Trump, for himself and the country.

“I remember, starting my first job and three months in I saw that my taxes went lower,” he said. “You see all these other candidates who are trying to copy some of his policies, saying the same things, but it seems like he’s the original”.

Attention will now turn to New Hampshire’s primary next Tuesday, where Ms Haley, in particular is expected to enjoy stronger support from an electorate that is more centrist, wealthier, and has a history of voting differently from Iowa. All three candidates shift their campaigns to the far northeastern state.