After victory on the Iowa caucus, Donald Trump spent a part of yesterday in a New York court docket.
To his supporters, such scenes go along with the territory. Seeing their chief defending a $10million defamation case is simply the value of doing enterprise with him.
Whatever his authorized issues – Trump is dealing with an inventory of fees that might put him in jail for round 700 years – his political enterprise is flourishing.
True, his opponents are adamant that there’s nonetheless a race for the Republican presidential nomination earlier than the ultimate election in November.
But after yesterday’s court docket look – in a case during which he has already been discovered to have defamed a girl he had sexually assaulted – he headed to New Hampshire, the subsequent main state, with the purpose of ending off his wounded opponents.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump applauds as he takes the stage at his caucus night time watch get together in Des Moines, Iowa
Supporters of Donald Trump attend a rally on the Fort Dodge Senior High School on November 18, 2023
That sentence is sufficient to inform you that this man is greater than Teflon. Nothing unhealthy attaches to him for lengthy – certainly, he makes use of the unhealthy as a political asset. He was a loser. Now he’s again to profitable.
After failing to safe re-election in 2020, Trump appeared to be on the way in which out. Many of those that had backed him had began to look elsewhere.
But then got here the 4 units of legal fees. At the time, some pundits questioned whether or not they would in actual fact bolster his probabilities. Now we all know the reply.
Iowa is a primary in America. After the polls and TV talking-heads have had their say, this frozen state gives the primary alternative for actual individuals to decide on the presidential candidate.
This yr, the well-known Iowa caucus has grow to be the coldest within the state’s historical past. And after I say ‘chilly’, I imply it. With wind chill, it has been -40C. To go from a constructing to your automobile truly hurts. Your face freezes. Your lips, too.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to the group at a caucus night time get together in West Des Moines, Iowa
Former US president Donald Trump was photographed for a police mug shot after his arrest on August 24 on the Fulton County Jail in Georgia
The highway from Chicago to Des Moines, which I needed to take as all of the flights had been cancelled, was suffering from these big American vans you see in films, spun round at loopy angles.
The journey ought to take 5 hours, nevertheless it took me a day. Signs by the highway say merely: ‘Travel will not be suggested.’
You’re by yourself. Crash and it’s possible you’ll die rapidly of chilly in snow. Very American. Very bracing.
The first query on caucus night time, then, was whether or not important numbers of individuals may keep at dwelling. Going outdoors could be an excessive amount of effort. You see, in a caucus, individuals should do extra than simply vote and rush again to the automobile. The course of entails speeches and participation.
So the second query was: Could we see from the end result whose supporters had been extra enthusiastic, extra prepared to threat frostbite? Trump had stated: ‘You cannot sit at dwelling. Even in the event you’re as sick as a canine, you say, ‘Darling, I gotta make it.’ Even in the event you vote after which cross away, it is value it!’
Was he joking? Sometimes with Trump, it is tough to say. But now we will argue his supporters appear to have taken him significantly, doing as he steered. Now it’s tough for anybody to catch him.
Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s UN ambassador, wanted to come back second and declare the mantle of important challenger to Trump. She failed. Instead, tough-talking Florida governor Ron DeSantis got here second. But he now faces a contest in New Hampshire during which he’ll virtually actually be trounced, as a result of New Hampshire’s extra suburban and unbiased main voters do not like him.
Iowa’s result’s deeply irritating for Haley. The polls recommend she would beat simply Joe Biden within the presidential election – however she has to grow to be the Republican candidate first. And her possibilities of which might be melting away.
So Trump steams forward. And even when he had been convicted – maybe jailed – earlier than the November election, his supporters inform pollsters they’ll keep on with him.
Not that the broader nation will essentially suppose that manner. Trump’s possibilities of profitable the ultimate contest towards Biden is likely to be considerably diminished within the occasion of a legal conviction.
But the Republican get together appears to have made up its thoughts. Biden v Trump, spherical two. The first fashionable presidential contest with two former presidents are prone to be on the ticket – and the oldest candidates in historical past as properly.
These males need to do battle, even when that depresses their voters. Even if it damages America.