Trump's triumph

Next up: New Hampshire

View in browser  January 17, 2024       Stephen Collinson, Caitlin Hu and Shelby Rose Trump's triumph Trump in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday.  One-term presidents almost never mount subsequent successful primary campaigns — much less pull off landslides that demonstrate utter dominance of their party. But ex-President Donald Trump's win in the Iowa caucuses, in which he set a record by claiming 50% of the vote, puts him on course for his third consecutive Republican nomination. He missed out on winning all of the state's 99 counties by a single vote.   Trump's triumph left his rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (a distant second) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, in the dust. And it caused shivers across the Atlantic, where European leaders are already dreading his possible White House return.   "The big night is going to be in November, when we take back our country," Trump told his first proper victory party since 2016. His MAGA-hat-wearing crowd greeted him with chants of "Trump, Trump, Trump" beneath two vast screens reading, "Trump wins Iowa!"   The ex-president won despite 91 criminal charges and other legal entanglements that threaten his freedom and his fortune, and about three years after he told a mob to "fight like hell" before it ransacked the US Capitol in an attempt to thwart President Joe Biden's 2020 election win.   Trump's dominance on Monday night shows that among the most committed Republican voters, there is no price for him to pay for the worst attack on an election in modern history. In fact, he has successfully leveraged his criminal plight to paint a narrative of persecution — a tactic that renewed his bond with GOP base voters and left his rivals in an impossible conundrum about how to exploit his liabilities.   Biden warned on the day of the caucuses that Trump is the "most anti-democratic president — with a small 'd' — in American history." He is already taking the fight to his predecessor, telling supporters on X: "This election was always going to be you and me vs. extreme MAGA Republicans."  Sign up for Meanwhile in America The world and America The global elite have gathered in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum.   Japanese technology company Fujitsu says it will compensate UK postal workers who were ruined by its software.   And hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now starving in besieged Gaza, according to the United Nations' emergency relief chief.   Meanwhile in America ... Trump was back in a New York courthouse for his second E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.   Nikki Haley told Fox News the US has "never been a racist county."    And here's what we know about the drowning deaths of a woman and two children from Mexico near the US-Mexico border. 'One more shot' Republican political consultant Scott Jennings interpreted Monday night's results as a sign that GOP voters believe Trump's claims of persecution by the Biden administration. He also suggested that Haley and DeSantis are already effectively finished: "It's not a race for second, it's a race for relevancy and everyone is losing except for Donald Trump," Jennings said. "This Republican Party wants to give Donald Trump one more shot to prove them all wrong, that everything was a witch hunt, that the election was rigged. … It's obvious they want one more shot at it; it's showing up in national polling and we are seeing it at these caucus sites." And now for something completely different Trump, DeSantis, and Haley speak in Des Moines on Monday. The US election marathon has already moved to New Hampshire, which holds its primary election next Tuesday.   This a completely different race. While evangelical Christians and social conservatives are key in Iowa, New Hampshire is one of the most secular states in America. It has more moderate Republicans and allows independent undeclared voters to take part in the primary. This gives Haley her best chance of scoring an early win against Trump that could change the profile of a race.   Haley insists that the primary is a two-candidate race — a claim somewhat undermined by her third-place finish in Iowa. But in the Granite State, a CNN poll has Haley within shouting distance of Trump. She was helped last week by the withdrawal of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is also popular with independents. A win in New Hampshire would give Haley momentum heading into her home state primary next month – although South Carolina is one of the most pro-Trump states in the union.    Trump is unloading an avalanche of negative advertising on Haley, reasoning that if he wins in New Hampshire and trounces her in South Carolina, the race will be effectively over before most states weigh in.   DeSantis, meanwhile, claims he punched his ticket out of Iowa by clinging on to second place on Monday. But it's hard to see where he goes from here. He's polling in the single digits in New Hampshire. His strategy of attacking Trump from the right was badly exposed in Iowa, despite spending months and millions of dollars in a state that ought to have embraced his extreme conservatism. There's little reason to think he'll do better in South Carolina – assuming he makes it that far, since failures tend to dry up the campaign fundraising that all candidates need to compete. Thanks for reading.   On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  What did you think of today's email? Send us feedback: meanwhile@cnn.com   You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for Meanwhile in America. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or sign up to manage your CNN account   Learn more about the CNN app |  Get CNN web alerts  |  Sign up for a free CNN account   ® © 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. 1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318