Former U.S. President Donald Trump is facing an array of criminal charges and upcoming trials, skipped five debates with his 2024 Republican presidential challengers, and continues to claim falsely that he was cheated out of reelection in his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
But the first-in-the-nation 2024 voting for the Republican presidential nomination in the Iowa caucuses proved he also has a resilient connection with his supporters, rolling to victory in 98 of the 99 counties in the Midwestern farm state.
Trump won more than half the vote Monday night, more than doubling the vote of both of his two closest challengers. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis edged out former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for second place, while the fourth-place finisher, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
The Trump show of voter support in the heavily Republican state was on clear display, with news outlets and television networks quickly declaring Trump the Iowa winner even before all caucus-goers at more than 1,600 balloting sites had voted.
"This has been an incredible experience," Trump told his supporters in a victory speech in Des Moines. "And they said, 'Well, if you win by 12%, that's a big win. That's going to be very hard to do.' Well, I think we've more than doubled that."
On his Truth Social platform Tuesday morning, Trump called his Iowa win "historic."
Trump's campaign has predicted it could clinch the Republican nomination for the third straight presidential election cycle by the end of March, with more state-by-state primary and caucus victories likely in the coming weeks.
Next up is a Republican primary in the northeastern state of New Hampshire next Tuesday, where polls show Trump with a significant lead, but with Haley gaining ground from earlier surveys.
Trump also appears well-positioned to win the Nevada Republican presidential caucus in early February and the primary in Haley's home state in late February.
Trump claimed in a Monday social media post that Haley "never will" gain the support of his Make America Great Again followers. He said that DeSantis, whom he derides as "DeSanctimonious," only qualifies as "MAGA-Lite."
"The days of the RINOS (Republicans in Name Only) and non-AMERICA FIRST candidates are OVER!" he declared.
Despite his resounding show of voter support in Iowa, the reality of Trump's out-of-politics public life was quickly on display Tuesday morning.
He showed up in a New York courtroom where a jury is set to consider whether writer E. Jean Carroll is entitled to $10 million or more in damages for Trump allegedly defaming her in 2019 when he rejected as "totally false" her claim that he raped her in a New York department store decades ago. He also said she invented the claim to promote sales of a book she had just published.
A jury last May had already ordered Trump to pay Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, $5 million for his remark in 2022, calling her claim "a complete con job."
Trump has said he wants to testify against Carroll in the new case, but the presiding judge has ruled the facts are already established from the previous case. A jury ruled at that time that Trump had sexually abused her in a dressing room at the department store but did not rape her.
On Truth Social, Trump claimed the case brought by the 80-year-old Carroll was a "Biden-encouraged Witch Hunt," even though it is a civil case that has no connection to the federal government's Justice Department, where special counsel Jack Smith has accused Trump in a criminal case of illegally trying to upend his 2020 election loss.
In all, Trump faces 91 charges across four indictments, with him denying all wrongdoing.
Trump called the Carroll allegation "a FAKE Case from a woman I have never met, seen, or touched." He said a long-ago photo of them standing together in a New York "celebrity line" did not amount to evidence of him meeting her.
"Naturally, it starts right after Iowa, and during the very important New Hampshire Primary," he said. "It is a giant Election Interference Scam, pushed and financed by political operatives. I had no idea who this woman was. PURE FICTION!"
Later, Trump is campaigning in New Hampshire, as are Haley and DeSantis.
