Donald Trump's historic blowout in last night's Iowa caucuses outdid all expectations and gives him tremendous momentum going into the New Hampshire primary a week from today.
His well-managed campaign put together a superb ground-game, producing 51% and winning 98 of 99 counties – losing the 99th by one vote. Importantly, Fox's Voter Analysis showed the two top issues for Iowans were the illegal immigration crisis and the economy.
This was President Trump's bread and butter. As I have said many times, he is running an issues campaign and it worked spectacularly last night in Iowa. Actually, the illegal immigration catastrophe was the number one issue for caucusgoers and here is what the president said in his speech last night. Take a listen:
DONALD TRUMP: "We're going to seal up the border because right now we have an invasion and we have an invasion of millions and millions of people that are coming into our country. I can't imagine why they think that's a good thing. It's a very bad thing. // And we're going to have to deport. We're going to have to have a deportation level that we haven't seen in this country for a long time since Dwight Eisenhower actually."
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This is a signature Trump issue. Frankly, the signature issue going all the way back to 2015 when he first announced his candidacy. It's a problem he solved, but it's a problem Joe Biden re-created. Secondly: "drill, baby, drill," liquid gold, tax cuts and a return to prosperity – another signature Trump issue. Take a listen to what he said last evening.
DONALD TRUMP: "And now we're a nation in decline. We are going to turn it around so fast. It's going to happen so fast. We're going to drill. We're going to make great - we have great wealth - we're going to drill. We're going to use that money to lower your taxes even further. We gave you the biggest tax cut in history and we're going to lower them further and we're also going to pay off national debt. It's about time."
I love that! "Drill, baby, dill," liquid gold, tax cuts. It doesn’t get any better than that for prosperity. Importantly, the former president held out olive branches to Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, as he congratulated their efforts and called for unity. This was exactly the right approach and tone. Here's how he said it:
DONALD TRUMP: "I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together. We're all having a good time together and I think they both actually did very well. I also want to congratulate Vivek, because he did a hell of a job. He came from zero and he's got a big percent, probably 8%, almost 8% and that's an amazing job. They all did. They're very smart, very smart people, very capable people."
The key, of course, is to defeat President Biden and his open border catastrophe, his failed Bidenomics, his socialist Green New Deal and his collapsing foreign policy.
The primaries will go on for a while, though Mr. Trump will be a sure winner. Hopefully, the avalanche of endorsements – including Vivek Ramaswamy and senators, governors and House members too numerous to count – will help persuade Governors DeSantis and Haley to join the unity ticket behind Trump before long. One other signature Trump theme showed up in last night's Voter Analysis. Iowa Republicans who want total change in how the U.S. is run voted overwhelmingly – by 69% – for Mr. Trump.
This is the Trumpian "Drain the Swamp." Whether a two-tiered election interfering Justice System, the FBI, the CIA, corrupt prosecutors all across the country, a lack of law and order, parental rights in the classroom, free speech, tenured civil servants, woke DEI rather than merit – America under Joe Biden has veered sharply in the wrong direction.
Donald Trump believes he can fix a very broken system and so did the voters of Iowa and they won't be the last. It's history in the making. That's my riff.
