NEWTON, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump reminded his supporters why they like him and his detractors why they do not during his weekend campaigning in Iowa before next week’s caucuses.
Trump’s most ardent supporters reveled in his criticism of President Joe Biden, in addition to his 2024 Republican primary opponents Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. But his detractors have underscored his incendiary remarks regarding Jan. 6 to the Civil War.
Trump’s divisiveness has been a defining feature of the 2024 Republican presidential race before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15, but as Biden also steps out onto the campaign trail and his aides complain about the lack of coverage concerning Trump’s statements, the incumbent is helping Trump’s competitors as the former president’s legal problems dominate headlines days before the opening nominating contest.
During Trump’s two-day, four-rally tour of Iowa, the former president compared convicted Jan. 6 rioters to “hostages,” imploring Biden on the third anniversary of the 2021 U.S. Capitol protest to release them, and reiterated how he hoped the Supreme Court justices he “fought really hard” to confirm will be “fair” to him as they consider any of his cases that come before them. He additionally mocked Biden for having a stutter and mimicked him for seeming to become disoriented during public appearances. He loosely connected Haley’s immigration policies to her Indian ancestry as well while insisting he could have negotiated the end of the Civil War.
“I’m 100% up here,” the former president said in Sioux City, pointing to his head and alluding to his mental capacity. “I think I’d know it. Maybe you know, but you don’t want to know.”
It is comments such as those that caused Trump to lose the support of DeSantis precinct caucus captain Marie Andersen, the Council Bluffs retired healthcare recruiter, 76, told the Washington Examiner after an event at a local bar and grill for the governor.
“I think his time has come and gone,” Andersen said of Trump. “There were a lot of things I liked about him when he was president, but there are a lot of things I didn’t like. One of them is his temper and his mouth. And I believe that he’s got too much baggage going into this election, that, as a president, he’s really going to struggle. … He’s more like a celebrity than a president, and that bothers me.”
Haley’s supporters express similar exhaustion with Trump, with the candidate herself referring to it as “chaos.”
But Mary Doyle, a Trump precinct caucus captain from Des Moines who was at the former president’s smaller rally last weekend in Newton where he made the hostages and Civil War asides, remained undeterred.
“I’ve seen him get really pumped up, and I’ve also seen him in a format like this,” the data analyst, 69, said. “I think he does very well.”
“I think what’s driving what he’s doing now is more what’s been happening to him,” she added. “I mean, the lawsuits and all that. Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s almost an ‘I’ll show them’ attitude type of thing. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, like a bully. It’s not like that at all. It’s that ‘I’m going to show them that I’m the best there is.’”
Outside the Newton Des Moines Area Community College’s event space, Tobe Kelsey, 47, described Trump as being “more energetic,” noting “he has taken the gloves off,” in contrast to when she has seen him speak previously.
“He’s not fooling around,” the Newton home carer said. “He is a politician now. He knows how to play the game, but he’s still fair and honest. He tells you how it is, and it’s the blunt truth, but, hey, there it is.”
After a larger rally in Mason City the day before, Bob Sherman, 68, was confident Trump would win next week’s caucuses, contending the former president’s supporters understand his capabilities.
“His big ego, which some people don’t like, but his big ego is exactly what drives him,” the Clear Lake semi-retiree said at the North Iowa Events Center. “If he was a wallflower, he wouldn’t be president.”
For Zach Byrnes, 34, Trump’s crowd sizes and the audiences’ responses to him provide interesting insights before the Jan. 15 nominating contest, though multiple people left the Mason City rally early.
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“I mean, somebody drawing a crowd like this, it’s kind of hard to say they’re not going to do well,” the Riceville farmer said. “I think Trump will be No. 1.”
During Biden’s second campaign event of the year, a speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in
Charleston, South Carolina, he excoriated white supremacy as “poison” and Trump as a “loser.” His staff has been criticized for reportedly inviting political reporters and editors to its headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, before scrutinizing their coverage, including for concentrating too much on Trump’s trials and allegations related to his past misdeeds instead of, for instance, what he is saying and doing now in Iowa.