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    Trump’s Landslide Victory in Iowa

    More from our inbox:Young Voters: Vote!U.S. Strikes in YemenThe Genocide Charges Against IsraelDonald J. Trump at a caucus site in Clive, Iowa, on Monday evening. His victory was called by The Associated Press only 31 minutes after the caucuses had begun.Doug Mills/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Trump Wins Iowa in Key First Step Toward Rematch” (front page, Jan. 16):If you weren’t scared before Monday night’s Iowa caucuses, you should be terrified now. The disgraced, twice-impeached, quadruple-indicted former president came within one vote of winning all 99 of Iowa’s counties, and received 51 percent of the vote.Ron DeSantis came in a distant second with 21 percent of the vote, and Nikki Haley was a distant third with just 19 percent of the vote.The bid for the Republican nomination for president is all but over, leaving America with a terrible choice between the autocratic and awful former president, and the obviously too old and frail current president.Unless Ms. Haley can win convincingly in New Hampshire, and match Donald Trump in South Carolina, the former president will be the nominee.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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    A Road Trip to Iowa for the Caucuses

    Suri Botuck was eager to hear Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida deliver his closing pitch to Iowans on Sunday in Cedar Rapids — but she didn’t caucus for him on Monday night. Nor is she even from Iowa.Ms. Botuck, 40, and her husband, Jacob Botuck, 42, hail from St. Louis, about 250 miles to the south. With five of their six children in tow, they piled into the family’s 2009 Toyota Sienna at first light on Sunday morning to participate in what she called “caucus tourism,” a tradition her family began during the Democratic primary race four years ago.In 2020, the family attended events for Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg and Donald J. Trump. Every stop was meticulously documented in a photo book she brings on their travels.The Botuck family’s photo book. Jenna Fowler/The New York TimesWhy, exactly, do the Botucks travel so far — and in such great numbers — to see a few stump speeches?Ms. Botuck said she viewed the trips as more than just family outings. They are a chance to engage with the political process up close. “My hope is that my kids will know they always have to vote,” she said.This year, the Botucks were joined by Ms. Botuck’s sister, Rivka Friedman, 34, her husband and her five children.“As much as politics can be fun, it’s also important to us because these things impact everything,” Ms. Botuck said, adding that she found the campaign events in Iowa to be “really family friendly.”On Monday, the Botucks went to see Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, and Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy entrepreneur, who dropped out of the race later that evening following Mr. Trump’s decisive victory.Ms. Botuck said she had voted for Mr. Trump in the last go-round. “I like my low taxes, I like my peace in Israel, I like my school choice,” she said.Her husband, whom she described as “more of a libertarian,” cast a symbolic write-in vote for the American economist and statistician Milton Friedman, who died nearly two decades ago.While Ms. Botuck hasn’t decided whom she will vote for in Missouri’s primary, she said Mr. DeSantis was a strong contender. The Florida governor, she said, “has a very good spine and doesn’t care what people think.”She also said she liked the prospect of Mr. DeSantis as Mr. Trump’s running mate, something the governor has ruled out. “I’d love to see a joint ticket,” she said.After Mr. Trump’s first-place finish, the Botucks were headed to the DeSantis party. When asked about the former president’s win, Ms. Botuck said of the DeSantis campaign, “I’m sure they really were prepared for that.” More

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    Trump’s Domination and the Battle for No. 2 in Iowa

    Mary Wilson, Clare Toeniskoetter and Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicAt the Iowa Republican caucuses on Monday night, Donald J. Trump secured a runaway victory. The only real drama was the fight for second place.Reid Epstein, who covers politics for The Times, takes us inside one of the caucuses, and Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter, walks us through the final results.On today’s episodeReid J. Epstein, a politics correspondent for The New York Times.Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter for The New York Times.Ron DeSantis speaking in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday. Despite an expensive canvassing and voter-turnout operation, he returned a lackluster result.Jordan Gale for The New York TimesBackground readingA letdown for Ron DeSantis: His campaign is running low on cash and faces tough tests ahead.Why coming in second can be a win in early-state contests.Here are five takeaways from Trump’s crushing victory.There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.Reid J. Epstein More

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    Even the Battle for Second Turned Out Well for Trump in Iowa

    A dominant victory and little momentum for his rivals.Donald Trump won by 30 percentage points. Doug Mills/The New York TimesIf there was any question whether Donald J. Trump was on track to win the Republican nomination, it was answered Monday night by the voters of Iowa.The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses delivered him a sweeping victory, offering the most concrete proof yet of his dominance over the Republican Party.With nearly all the votes counted, Mr. Trump’s share was 51 percent. Ron DeSantis finished a distant second at 21 percent, with Nikki Haley at 19 percent.The result is not surprising or even unexpected, but Mr. Trump’s victory is no small feat. A year ago, Iowa did not look as if it would be easy for the former president. In an upset eight years ago, Iowa voters rejected Mr. Trump in favor of Ted Cruz. And unlike the rest of the country, the Iowa political establishment has refused to get in line behind Mr. Trump.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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    Haley’s Missed Opportunity: Iowa Slows Her Roll Into New Hampshire

    A third-place finish didn’t deliver the boost Nikki Haley wanted as she tries to turn the race into a one-on-one with Donald Trump.Nikki Haley had hoped to vault into New Hampshire ahead of next Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary with a head of steam from a second-place finish in Iowa and a powerful case to make that the 2024 nomination fight was a two-candidate race between her and Donald J. Trump.Instead, as Ms. Haley hobbles into New Hampshire, the pressure is on to show she can compete with Mr. Trump.Her disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses on Monday showed that for all the hype, her momentum ultimately stalled in the face of a Republican electorate still in the thrall of the former president. That included not only Mr. Trump’s working-class base but also the bastions of college-educated Republicans in and around Des Moines that she was supposed to dominate.In her speech after the caucuses, Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, sharpened her attack on Mr. Trump, questioning his age and his ability to unite a fractured country. She lumped Mr. Trump with Mr. Biden as backward-looking barriers to an American revival.“The question before Americans is now very clear: Do you want more of the same or do you want a new generation of conservative leadership?” she asked, drawing loud applause and chants of “Nikki, Nikki.” “Our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare.”Still, Ms. Haley’s final tally in Iowa most likely breathed some new life into the campaign of her rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, and indicated that, for all the excitement around her campaign in the closing weeks, her pitch may have limited appeal with Republicans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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    A Republican Pollster on Trump’s Undimmed Appeal

    The fact that Donald Trump is the front-runner for the G.O.P. nomination in 2024 has created a chasm in our politics. In the past, Democrats and Republicans at least understood why members of the other party liked their chosen candidates. Most conservatives weren’t confused why liberals liked Barack Obama, and vice versa for George W. Bush. But for a lot of Democrats, it feels impossible to imagine why anyone would cast a vote for Trump. And as a result, the two parties don’t just feel hostile toward each other; they feel increasingly unknowable.[You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.]Kristen Soltis Anderson is a veteran Republican pollster, a founding partner of the opinion research firm Echelon Insights and a CNN contributor. She spends her days trying to understand the thinking of Republican voters, including hosting focus groups for New York Times Opinion. So I wanted to get her insights on why Republicans like Trump so much — even after his 2020 electoral loss, the Jan. 6 insurrection and over 90 criminal charges. What really explains Trump’s enduring appeal?You can listen to our whole conversation by following “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Google or wherever you get your podcasts. View a list of book recommendations from our guests here.(A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.)Illustration by The New York Times; image courtesy of Kristen Soltis AndersonThis episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin and Rollin Hu. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and Threads. More

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    Donald Trump Wins the Iowa GOP Caucuses

    Donald J. Trump won the Iowa caucuses on Monday, a crucial first step in his bid to reclaim the Republican nomination for the third consecutive election as voters braved the bitter cold, looked past his mounting legal jeopardy and embraced his vision of vengeful disruption.The victory, called by The Associated Press on Monday night only 31 minutes after the caucuses had begun, accelerated Mr. Trump’s momentum toward a historic potential rematch in November with President Biden that could play out on both the campaign trail and in the courtroom.In a state that had rejected him in the caucuses eight years ago, Mr. Trump finished ahead of two of his main rivals, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who were locked in a race for second place. It was unclear who had won second and who had won third. The result was a setback for both Republicans, who had spent as much time and money battling each other in Iowa as they had spent on the front-runner. Mr. DeSantis, the Florida governor, had previously predicted victory in Iowa, and both he and Ms. Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, have argued that a strong second-place finish would better position them as Mr. Trump’s chief rival going forward.Mr. Trump is the first former president in the modern era who has sought to return to the White House. On Monday, he was hoping to shatter the Republican record for the largest victory ever in a contested caucus, which was just under 13 percentage points. Despite the quick declaration of Mr. Trump as the winner, it was not yet clear if he would win an outright majority of more than 50 percent, a critical psychological barrier for those in the party still hoping to stop him.A spokesman for Mr. DeSantis, Andrew Romeo, said in a statement that the early declaration of Mr. Trump’s victory was “absolutely outrageous.” He borrowed a phrase from Mr. Trump to accuse the news media of participating “in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More