Donald Trump started a fall publicity campaign on Wednesday to snag thousands of Republican caucus-goers in early voting Iowa, where the former president is running for re-election to the White House.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Trump was making his first of five scheduled visits to Iowa through the end of October, despite having campaigned there considerably less frequently than many of his opponents for the 2024 nomination. In an effort to clinch a sizable victory that would deny his competitors momentum and basically conclude the primary on caucus day, Trump’s campaign is making the visits in an effort to convert what polls in Iowa show as a dominating lead into committed fans and volunteers.
“In less than four months from now, we’re going to win the Iowa caucuses in a historic landslide,” Trump predicted as he addressed a crowd of more than 1,000 people in small-town Maquoketa. He urged those in attendance to support him in the Jan. 15 caucuses and asked them to bring friends along.
Tables inside the hall promoted the number to sign up for campaign text messages and screens displayed the caucus schedule and how to participate.
Trump addressed his 2016 loss at the start of his speech, blaming his previous campaign team.
“They didn’t do the caucus thing too well and I learned a lot,” Trump acknowledged, adding: “I don’t like second, though.”
Maquoketa is a small town of about 6,000 in the middle of several rural counties in the heart of the swath of eastern Iowa. In 2016, the region flipped from Democratic President Barack Obama to Trump.
At a second event in Dubuque, Trump laced into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he has long treated as his chief target, as he touted the efforts of his administration to help Iowa farmers and crack down on illegal immigration. At one point, Trump recited a poem he sometimes reads about a woman who invites a sick, frozen snake into her home, only to be bitten.
“That’s what’s happening in our country,” he said.
Before leaving town, Trump stopped by Kathy’s Treehouse Pub and Eatery. More than a hundred people packed into the bar of the Bettendorf restaurant, where Trump signed dollar bills, caps and the tank top — and later, arm — of a woman who bartends at the popular watering hole. Trump handed out boxed pizzas to the crowd of cheering supporters, who screamed his name and sang along to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Trump has visited Iowa seven times this year, headlining policy and political events, and he stopped by his campaign office in July. Trump has opted not to attend key multicandidate events in Iowa hosted by influential social conservative groups, an important bloc in the caucuses.