In just 10 minutes, Donald Trump demonstrated why his opponents will have a hard time beating him despite the mounting number of criminal allegations against him in the Republican presidential election.
On Friday, the first event brought together the top Republican contenders in polls, much like an American Idol audition, in Iowa, the first state to hold caucuses. The ex-president’s legal troubles cast a shadow over the event.
If Trump is the nominee, his legal troubles could be a hindrance in the general election, but his opponents didn’t want to risk losing his still-huge grassroots support by bringing it up. Many lesser-known candidates who had much less to lose tried to address the elephants in the room, only to be met with either silence or a barrage of booing.
Yet Trump couldn’t deny the truth of a campaign in which he seemed to be running as much to reclaim the powers of the presidency to sweep away his criminal exposure as to enact an agenda likely to be even more severe and disruptive than that of his first term. Candidates filed out to Brooks & Dunn’s “Only in America.” Lyrics like “One kid dreams of fame and fortune” reflect Trump’s uncertain future. One of the children contributes to the monthly rent. One’s future may include time in jail. Maybe one of them will become president.
It was Trump’s first significant public appearance since Thursday, when special counsel Jack Smith charged him with concealing sensitive information at his home in Florida after he left office.
However, Trump has mostly ignored a rush of litigation that could require him to split his time between the courtroom and the campaign trail next year, despite being the only one of 13 Republican aspirants to garner a standing ovation before he even spoke. He did, however, criticise the Biden administration, arguing that justice had been politicised and turned into a weapon.
No one would be after me if I weren’t fleeing. Trump has sought to transform his vulnerable situation into a virtue on the campaign trail by portraying himself as a victim of political persecution. “Or if I was losing by a lot, I would have nobody coming after me,” he claimed.
Trump has indicated he expects to be indicted in two other special counsel investigations in addition to the confidential papers case: one concerning his attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat, and another into his behaviour in the lead-up to the mob attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. In addition, he has a March trial date in Manhattan for a hush money case involving an adult film actress.
Because of his overwhelming popularity in Iowa and the Republican Party as a whole, his opponents decided not to risk their own reception at Friday night’s dinner or their chances in January by bringing up the fresh allegations.
Leaders of Trump’s opponents aren’t publicly criticising him.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did, in fact, publicly tighten his criticism of Trump’s legal condition.
“If the election becomes a referendum on what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, we are not going to win,” DeSantis said, according to ABC News. There must be no interruptions.
Former Vice President Mike Pence avoided directly criticising Trump, but he did raise issues about Trump’s fitness for future administration.
Pence told Fox News, “The allegations, including yesterday’s allegations against the president in that indictment are very serious,” adding that Trump has a right to a trial. But I will never minimise the gravity of protecting state secrets. It has a direct impact on the safety of our nation.
Trump has only been directly challenged by candidates who are so far behind that they appear to have little prospect of winning in Iowa or anywhere else.
Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, visited, but it did him no good.
Hutchinson warned Iowa voters that “multiple criminal cases against former President Trump are pending at the time of your vote.” We are a party that believes in the rule of law and holds its members accountable for their actions. We can’t just give up on it now. A single applause erupted from the otherwise hushed ballroom at his remark.
Ex-CIA officer and former Texas representative Will Hurd saved his harshest condemnation for the conclusion of his speech.
Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is a lie. Hurd declared, to resounding booing, that Trump “is not running for president to represent the people who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.” As the boos grew louder, he continued, “Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison.”
“Yes, I understand. I know. I know. I know. Take it from me, I know what’s up. The truth is tough, Hurd said, adding, “If we (nominate) Donald Trump, we are willingly giving Joe Biden four more years in the White House, and America can’t handle that.”
A comparison of the crowd sizes at Trump’s post-dinner reception and those of his opponents shows that he continues to be the party’s favourite. A lot may happen in the months leading up to the caucuses, and Trump’s hero status could take a hit if people start to see the mounting legal challenges he faces and decide that another Republican could be a safer option than him. But thus far in Iowa, there has been no indication that Trump will be stopped.
Trump is not using the event to make numerous appearances in Iowa like some of the other GOP contenders are doing. On Saturday, he will travel to Erie, Pennsylvania, to have a campaign event in front of a crowd that is expected to be even more receptive.
Exhibit of a rapidly expanding effort
Even if they only spoke for 10 minutes each and never battled onstage, Friday’s dinner in Des Moines, the state capital, was one of the few times all of the top GOP candidates were in the same place at the same time. Trump has hinted that he may not participate in the first Republican presidential debate on Fox News next month, which could make sense given his large lead in the polls. Because of the structure of these contests, no candidate has a chance to stand out and win. However, it’s not completely out of the question. At the then-named Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, the Democratic version, Senator Barack Obama gave a speech that revitalised his sputtering campaign. After a few months, he finally got the Democratic nomination and the presidency in 2008 by winning the Iowa caucuses.
Every other contender on the ballot on Friday night was jockeying to become the anti-Trump option, and if they did well in Iowa, they might be in for a long primary season battle with the front-runner.
The field came to Iowa with extra motivation due to the stumbles of DeSantis, who was previously considered Trump’s chief competitor but was forced to lay off staff because to funders’ worries about his wasteful spending and lacklustre performance. DeSantis is now pursuing a traditional grass-roots campaign in Iowa, with local events and direct interaction with voters.
While polling has been limited in Iowa as the state prepares for the caucuses in January, a Fox Business survey conducted this month showed Trump with 46% of the vote. With 16%, DeSantis was ahead of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who received 11%. Nobody else even made it into the top ten.
Trump gave the most stunning 10-minute address despite the indictments that loomed over his head. He displayed unusual self-control in keeping to the script and showed how he plans to leverage the popularity of his administration’s legacy among activists to gain an advantage over his opponents. He, unlike the majority of his rivals, adapted his campaign rhetoric to the voters of Iowa.
Good day, Iowa! The former head of state had a straightforward message to deliver: “There has never been a better friend for Iowa in the White House than President Donald J. Trump,” and he proceeded to outline a number of benefits, both true and exaggerated, that Iowa had while he was in office. Trump further claimed that the state’s status as the first to hold a presidential nominating contest would have been lost without him. Since the majority-White, rural state does not accurately reflect the demographics of the rest of the country, Democrats have rearranged their primary schedule.
“Without me, you would not be first in the nation right now,” Trump claimed.