Trump plays expectations game in Iowa: ‘Don’t want to take anything for granted’

MASON CITY, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump implored his supporters not to be complacent days before Iowa’s caucuses, the 2024 Republican primary‘s opening contest.

“We don’t want to take anything for granted,” Trump told a crowd Friday in Mason City.

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Trump criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), contending he would not have been elected statewide in Florida in 2018 without his endorsement, as he has an average 30-odd percentage point advantage on the governor in Iowa before the Jan. 15 caucuses. He also scrutinized former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for “not having what it takes,” underscoring the problems with her immigration policies and her mistakes regarding comments about the Civil War and how New Hampshire “corrects” the Hawkeye State’s caucus outcomes.

Andrew Harnik/AP

Trump encouraged his supporters to send a “thunderous” message on Jan. 15, the night of the Iowa caucuses. Many people inside the North Iowa Events Center had lined up in the cold, wrapped in blankets, and aimed digs at a sole anti-Trump protester with a makeshift cardboard sign.

Trump went on to question the 2020 election results, speculating that the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel would not have unfolded under his leadership. He described President Joe Biden as the “worst,” “most incompetent” president, mocking his likely general election challenger for the 81-year-old’s gait and for sometimes seeming lost during public appearances.

“He’s harmless, and, mentally, he’s harmless. He’s got a lot of people around him,” Trump, 77, said. “There is no time to waste,” he added. “Joe Biden’s banana republic will end on Jan. 20, 2025.”

In western Iowa earlier Friday, Trump mimicked Biden’s stutter, earning condemnations online. Undeterred, he made a similar joke in Mason City. During the earlier rally in Sioux Center, he reiterated that he is only seeking a fair hearing before the Supreme Court as it considers the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove the former president from its state’s primary ballot, though he underscored how he “fought really hard to get three very, very good people in,” referring to Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

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“They’re great people, very smart people,” he said in Sioux Center. “I just hope they’re going to be fair because, you know, the other side plays the ref.”

Trump will be in Clinton and Newton on Saturday before returning to Iowa next weekend, visiting Atlantic, Cherokee, Indianola, and Sioux City. He is expected to attend oral arguments for his federal appeals court case concerning presidential immunity next week amid special counsel Jack Smith‘s election interference investigation.