The New York Times: On eve of caucuses, Donald Trump casts Iowa as a battleground for victory over ‘cheaters’
Former President Donald Trump framed the Iowa caucuses in dark terms Sunday, attacking the opponents he leads handily in the final sprint to the nation’s first nominating contest.
Trump assailed Nikki Haley, who trailed him by 28 points in a key poll released Saturday night, and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida — and more broadly, those who “crave to destroy the MAGA movement.”
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The caucuses, he said, were a chance to score “ultimate victory” over enemies he described as “liars,” “cheaters” and “thugs,” to a crowd in Indianola, Iowa, that braved subzero temperatures and wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees.
With Trump the odds-on favorite to win Iowa, the most unpredictable element of the contest remained the weather. Life-threatening cold scrambled the turnout calculations that campaigns are making about their coalitions.
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, canceled an event in Dubuque for Sunday morning after high winds prevented her from flying across the state. Her main rival for second place, DeSantis, told CNN that he expected lower turnout than in 2016, the last contested Republican caucuses in the state. “With the weather, it could be — it could be significantly less,” he said.
Haley received a boost when Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland, announced that he was throwing his support behind her bid. He urged rivals of Trump to unify behind her, saying she was best positioned to coalesce support from anti-Trump forces in the Republican Party. “It’s time for the party to get behind Nikki Haley,” he said on CNN.
Trump picked up the endorsement of a former primary opponent, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who dropped out of the race last month. Burgum appeared onstage with Trump during his rally on the campus of Simpson College in Indianola.
A key poll released Saturday night showed that Trump had maintained his sweeping lead in the contest, with the support of 48% of likely caucusgoers. Haley was narrowly leading DeSantis in the race for second place, 20% to 16%. Trump’s support in the survey eclipsed that of all the other candidates combined, 48% to 45%.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
