Donald Trump and the Quick Fix
It never works against the former president.
Donald Trump won the largest majority ever for a non-incumbent in Monday’s Iowa caucuses. He captured 52% of the vote with low turnout and a limited effort compared to his dogged rivals. The former president’s victory has already pushed one competitor, Vivek Ramaswamy, to drop out of the race. It has the chance to increase his lead in New Hampshire and fully winnow the field after that critical race next week.
The most consequential result from Monday’s caucuses was not Trump’s victory but what it meant for the decline of Ron DeSantis. DeSantis was hoping to win Iowa as recently as last October. He had made an enormous effort in the state and had hoped to use an overperformance there to launch the rest of his campaign. But over the past several months, Nikki Haley has surged and DeSantis has lost whatever momentum he had been building early in 2023. Now, DeSantis is likely to be hammered in the next two contests in New Hampshire and Haley’s home state of South Carolina. He may not stay in the race long past February.
The Trump victory is emblematic of a belief among Trump critics that they can use a shortcut to move the former president out of public life. This trend is common among Democrats, who have gone from one perfect anti-Trump scheme to another over the past eight years. These shortcuts…