Donald Trump celebrates Iowa Poll lead as he rallies for caucus support

CORALVILLE — Former President Donald Trump celebrated his recent surge in Iowa polling and criticized his rival GOP candidates Wednesday in Coralville.

“We are leading by a lot, but you have to go out and vote,” Trump said, calling for Iowans to go to the Republican caucuses Jan. 15, 2024. “… Sometimes when you’re leading by a lot, everyone says, ‘Oh, why should I go and vote?’ The margin of victory is so important — and frankly, bad things are going to be happening if you don’t.”

The former president held an evening rally in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Coralville Hotel and Conference Center on the heels of a successful showing in the most recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll. His longtime lead grew to 51% of likely Republican caucusgoers who said Trump was their top choice.

His closest competitors, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, are still trailing Trump by double digits, at 19% and 16% respectively in the most recent poll.

Trump celebrated the “big beautiful poll” results, saying that his lead was historic. He praised J. Ann Selzer of polling firm Selzer & Company, who conducts the Iowa Poll, as a “very powerful” and talented pollster.

“Of course, if my numbers were bad, I wouldn’t be saying that,” Trump said, as the audience laughed. “I’d say, ‘You’re at terrible polls’ … But no, she’s very good.”

With the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses less than five weeks away, Trump’s campaign is working to lock down Iowans’ support, hoping to cut off fellow Republicans’ presidential campaigns in the first-in-the-nation contest.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who endorsed Trump in October, asked Iowans to sign “commit to caucus” cards and to help Trump win a decisive victory in Iowa. The Iowa caucuses usually mark the start of the presidential nominating cycle, but Bird said, “This year, Iowa might be where it all ends.”

Trump said Bird had emphasized the importance of the wide margin of victory in the Iowa caucuses, and asked Iowans to help “put big numbers up” in the caucuses.

Before Trump spoke, the campaign hosted a panel discussion with Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann and Trump caucus captains in eastern Iowa, who spoke about the importance of showing up to caucus.

Campaign staff and Iowa supporters not only encouraged attendees to show up on caucus night, but also asked them to try to bring at least 10 friends and family members to support Trump. While getting a big showing in areas like Iowa City will be important, speakers said, advocates also called for people in rural areas to reach out to their neighbors and communities to ensure there’s a strong showing for Trump across the state.

Mike Bixler, a caucus captain for Trump in southeast Iowa, said 10 people could make a major difference in his precinct caucus.

“At my precinct, we maybe only get 15 to 20,” he said. “And if the weather’s bad that night, people stay home – 10 people. … So you need to bring 10 people or more, get out in the weather, and give up 30 minutes of that night.”

Roughly a quarter of the event attendees raised their hands when asked if they would be first-time caucusgoers in 2024 — an “expansion of the electorate only President Trump can do,” Kaufmann said.

Though Trump boasted about his poll lead in Iowa, other states and nationally, he also criticized some media organizations’ interpretation of poll results — specifically, reporting on Haley’s “surge” in some polls.

Haley, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, has gained some traction in polls, in addition to winning the endorsements of New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and the conservative group Americans for Prosperity.

Trump disparaged media stories that point to the “Haley surge” for not highlighting that she remains a far second behind him in polls where she has gained some traction. The only person she’s “surging” against is DeSantis, he said.

“They’re talking about the Haley surge, where she goes up 2 points, I go up, I think 10 points — under 10 points,” Trump said. “They (should) say, ‘That’s a Trump surge,’ but they don’t want to say that. … These are the most dishonest people ever in our country.”

He repeated criticism of the Florida governor, as well as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who endorsed DeSantis in November, for not having “loyalty” and claimed both of the Republican governors’ election wins were because of his support.

He said Reynolds has become the “least popular governor in the nation” after her decision to stay neutral early in the GOP presidential campaign cycle, and her later decision to support DeSantis.

Karen Baculis of Iowa City said she plans to caucus for the former president, saying she believed returning Trump to the White House would help fix problems like inflation and the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.

“They all know him – knew him from being a businessman, and they have a personal relationship with him,” Baculis said. “These wars going on – nothing like that would have happened if he was president, like he was and will be.”

Trump lost to Biden in the 2020, though he falsely claimed the election was “rigged.” Baculis said she thinks 2024 will not end the same way.

“I hope they’ve got everything straightened out,” she said. “And I think they do, this time around. They’re more prepared.”

Trump said he does not believe Biden can win reelection in 2024 because he is not mentally fit to be president. The audience laughed as he mocked the current president by wandering around the stage and pretending to be confused.

Biden was 78 years old when he was sworn into office in 2021. If Trump, currently 77, wins in 2024, he will be older than Biden was when he took office – a fact that candidates like DeSantis have criticized. But Trump said he “aced” a cognitive exam he was given at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

“I feel that right now I’m sharper right now than I was 20 years ago,” he said. “You know, the funny thing — a very minor thing — but I’m a much better golfer than I was 10 or 15 years ago. It means something, you know it means something in a certain way.”