In an Iowa gym, Republicans faced a choice. They chose Donald Trump
In school gyms, libraries and community centres across Iowa on Monday night, the Republican Party found itself at a fork in the road.
It chose the path of Don‐ ald Trump.
The former president be‐ gan his political comeback with a historic landslide in Iowa on Monday, cementing his frontrunner status for Re‐ publican nominee.
He won by an unprece‐ dented margin over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis while former UN ambassador Nikki Haley finished third, and Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out to endorse Trump.
For all the complaints about Iowa's caucuses – they're low-turnout, timeconsuming, an inefficient way to vote – they offer a glimpse at democracy as a public pageant.
At hundreds of locations, someone grabs a microphone to speak on behalf of each candidate; then friends and neighbours line up and drop hand-filled ballots in paper bags.
The remaining Republicans opposed to Trump pleaded with their fellow partisans to choose a different path.
WATCH | Trump wins handily in Iowa:
In Van Meter, Iowa, local councillor Joel Akers spoke to members of his community who filled the stands in a high-school gym.
He said he'd voted twice for Trump. But something snapped that day a mob at‐ tacked the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in office.
"He didn't do a whole lot to stop it," Akers said. "The fact that he was so disrespect‐ ful of the peaceful transfer of power for our country … re‐ spected across the entire wor‐ ld, it was extremely disap‐ pointing to me.
"From that point on, I don't want to have him in there anymore. I've moved on."
Akers endorsed Haley as someone his daughter could look up to, someone who treats others with respect and brings people together.
A speaker on behalf of De‐ Santis, Jackie Abram, warned that Trump would be too dis‐ tracted by criminal trials this year to fight the general elec‐ tion.
She warned that Trump al‐ so turned off swing voters and that could cost victory in the election against President Joe Biden.
Those arguments were re‐ soundingly crushed.
Here's a piece of critical context: this county was an is‐ land of moderation in the state where the Haley-type candidate prevailed: in 2016 Marco Rubio, and in 2012 Mitt Romney, won Dallas County, an exurb of Des Moines.
It didn't happen this time. Unprecedented Iowa margin for Trump
In 2024, Trump appeared to win this county and came within a whisker of winning all 99 counties in the state, an unprecedented victory for a contested Republican caucus.
At this high school gym, in what might have been Haley country, the vote results were Trump 85, DeSantis 79, Haley 64, Ramaswamy 21.
This is three years after Trump appeared politically dead: he'd lost the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and his supporters had tried inter‐ rupting the transfer of power for the first time in the 232year history of U.S. elections, the Civil War notwithstanding.
Trump has been described as a menace by two of his chiefs of staff, two of his sec‐ retaries of defence, two na‐ tional-security advisers and numerous other former aides including in books and public hearings.
Now, his career is very much alive.
After they voted, Trump supporters brushed off the warnings they'd heard, such as the one from Akers. In what was a triumphant mo‐ ment, several even expressed anger.
Anger about inflation, mi‐ gration, and the lack of a bor‐ der wall with Mexico. But also anger about the 2020 elec‐ tion, their views countering the prevailing mainstream recollection of that year's events.
Trump supporters: 'Peo‐ ple are pissed'
They insist the election was stolen from Trump; they dismiss the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol as an inside job led by the FBI or by left-wing anarchists, or both, and no amount of media stories to the contrary will make a dif‐ ference because they don't trust the media either.
"People are pissed," said an older woman who declined to be named, a real-estate agent angry about interest rates.
"They're done with this crap. And they're going to get more in people's faces. … We're done with it. People are done with it."
Interviews like these gave human voice to entrance pol‐ ls at Iowa caucus sites.
The numbers reveal a fault line in the Republican Party – on one side, a mere 10 per cent of Trump supporters say Biden was legitimately elected; most supporters of other candidates agreed Biden won.
Among Trump supporters, nearly three-quarters said he should keep running for office even if he's found guilty of a crime; anti-Trump Republi‐ cans disagreed.
And there's no doubt who's running the show now in this party.
"I personally feel he's still our president. I believe it was taken away from him," said retiree Dan Edwards.
Edwards always hated politics and took an interest because of Trump. He saw Trump as the first politician willing to fight for a national‐ ist agenda – like putting tariffs on foreign goods, and, again, pushing for the wall with Mex‐ ico.
WATCH | Why the Iowa caucuses matter:
He grew angry while dis‐ cussing the criminal charges against Trump, which he de‐ rided as anti-American forces trying to sideline him.
"It's all bull crap," he said. "All the charges, all the elec‐ tion interference is what it is. And it's bad people from all over the world interfering in our elections. A lot of bad people."
Jan 6? 'I don't give a damn'
When asked about Jan. 6 he said: "I don't give a damn." He referred to anarchists and the FBI and said the official sto‐ ries about the Capitol ran‐ sacking are lies.
"I'm not stupid. And nei‐ ther are anybody else," he said. "What's going on in this country right now, we have to stop it. And if we don't stop it, it's going to get bad. Real bad."
Another woman who did‐ n't provide her name brushed off Jan. 6: "That stupid riot?" She said what people care about is lower interest rates and cheaper food.
Another retiree said he felt like he was voting for the le‐ gitimate incumbent presi‐ dent: Trump.
"I think he got ripped off," Don Grunwold said.
"There's too many Democ‐ rats trying to chase him out of office. Before he was sup‐
posed to leave."
In politics, success breeds success. Trump is now piling up endorsements from highlevel Republicans, as people want to join the perceived winner.
It was reflected in the fact that other candidates had lo‐ cal community members speaking on their behalf in Van Meter; taking the mi‐ crophone for Trump, how‐ ever, was a U.S. congressman,
Jason Smith, who came up from Missouri.
Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Ru‐ bio just joined the pile en‐ dorsing Trump, a bitter break for someone who en‐ dorsed Rubio in 2016: Haley.
Late Monday, pressure mounted on other candidates to leave the race. On Fox News, one personality ap‐ peared to hint that Haley should quit now, while she still has a chance to be Trump's running mate.
They made their choice in
Iowa.
And barring a miracle turn‐ around, starting in New Hampshire, Donald Trump's comeback will be ratified by the entire Republican Party.