Donald Trump sweeps Iowa caucuses, cements position as front-runner
A source familiar with Donald Trump’s travel plans said that the former president is set to follow up his Iowa victory with a trip to New York on January 16
Donald Trump has won the Iowa caucuses, strengthening his status as the front-runner in the Republican primary. Trump notably won despite spending just around $44,000 on advertisements targeting Iowa voters on Facebook and Instagram in the week that led up to the caucuses, data from the Meta ad library revealed, as reviewed by CNBC. The amount is a little less than what Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign spent – $45,000.
A source familiar with Trump’s travel plans said that the former president is set to follow up his Iowa victory with a trip to New York on Tuesday, January 16. He will be there to attend his civil trial in a defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll. He will then travel to New Hampshire for a rally.
In last week’s final NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll, a whopping 48% of likely caucus-goers selected Trump as their first choice. Nikki Haley was chosen by 20% and 16% chose Ron DeSantis. Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Texas pastor Ryan Binkley ran in single digits.
Earlier on Monday, January 15, before the caucuses, Trump had high hopes. “I don’t know about the total number of votes because, you know, it is a little cold out there, but not really, and remember, everybody is indoors,” he said during an interview with Jeff Stein on News/Talk 1540. “So you’re not standing outside. So I think it’s going to be very close to record-setting, maybe even record-setting.”
Donald Trump’s mounting legal troubles
While running for his campaign, Trump is navigating a heap of legal troubles. Last year he became the first US president in history to have a mugshot taken. On August 24, he turned himself in to Georgia authorities after facing 13 felony charges handed down by a Fulton County grand jury. His mugshot was taken while being booked at an Atlanta jail for allegedly trying to reverse the 2020 election results in Georgia.
In 2023, the Georgia indictment was the fourth brought against Trump. There were multiple federal cases over the former president’s attempts at overturning the 2020 election in Washington, DC, as well as for allegedly mishandling classified documents in South Florida.
Trump was also indicted for allegedly falsifying business records in an attempt to conceal “hush money” paid to Stormy Daniels before the elections in 2016. He was accused of doing this to keep Stormy from speaking up about an affair he allegedly had with the porn star.
