Former President Donald Trump has won the Iowa caucus by a landslide with about 51% of the vote. Trump claimed victory in 98 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis narrowly topped former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to place second in the first caucus of the 2024 election cycle. New Hampshire will hold the first primary a week from today. After placing fourth in Iowa, Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. Just 14% of Iowa’s registered Republicans participated in the caucus in part due to record low temperatures.
Trump’s victory came despite his mounting legal troubles and his refusal to debate his challengers. During a victory speech, Trump repeated his vow to deport millions of immigrants if he returns to the White House.

Donald Trump: “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.”

Donald Trump speaking in Iowa. Today he will be back in a New York courtroom for the start of E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against him. The first trial found Trump had sexually assaulted the New York writer in the 1990s and then defamed her. In May, a jury awarded Carroll $5 million. At this new trial, a different jury will determine if Trump owes her more money for other acts of defamation.