Donald Trump brings out his ‘killer instinct’ in Republican primaries | International

Courts are already part of Donald Trump’s campaign strategy. The former president of the United States has volunteered to attend two hearings this week in Washington and New York to present himself as a martyr to the most loyal Republican voters who participated in the primaries. In Washington, his lawyer argued—with his agreement—that the president should enjoy…

Courts are already part of Donald Trump’s campaign strategy. The former president of the United States has volunteered to attend two hearings this week in Washington and New York to present himself as a martyr to the most loyal Republican voters who participated in the primaries. In Washington, his lawyer argued—with his agreement—that he should enjoy immunity even if the president ordered special forces commandos to kill a political rival. Trump, who has been charged with 91 crimes in four separate cases, has yet to be charged with murder. However, he has a killer-political-instinct. As the race for the Republican Party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election officially begins this Monday in chilly Iowa, his ambition is to knock off his rivals before any viable alternative is realized.

Trump is a formidable opponent. Like a schoolyard bully, he loves to insult and ridicule his opponents. When he saw Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a threat, he brutally attacked him. Now her darts are pointed at Nikki Haley, proving her upward trajectory. One of his favorite hobbies is giving nicknames to his rivals – a Wikipedia page compiles it. For him, decentis is desanctus or desanctimonious, self-righteous or sensible. and former South Carolina governor and former UN ambassador “Knucklehead Nikki Haley”. The candidate tweeted that some Trump supporters had left a cage and birdseed outside the hotel. The former president has come forward for the fraud — previously used against Barack Obama — that she was not born in the United States, which would prevent her from becoming president.

After Chris Christie withdrew, so as not to split the vote against Trump, the Iowa caucuses (somewhat like an assembly-based primary, although the vote is secret and at the ballot box) are less crowded than expected. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has also stopped along the way; former Vice President Mike Pence; Senator Tim Scott and Governor Doug Burgum. Aside from DeSantis and Haley, the other candidate with minimal traction is millennial Trumpist Vivek Ramaswamy. In any case, across the country and in Iowa, Trump’s lead in the polls is enormous.

Among Republican voters across the United States, Trump has 60.4% voting intention, compared to 12.1% for DeSantis; FiveThirtyEight polls averaged 11.7% for Haley and 4.3% for Ramaswamy. His advantage in Iowa is small, but solid: 51.3% compared to Haley’s 17.3%; 16.1% for DeSantis and 6.6% for Ramaswamy.

In that rural and conservative state of 3.2 million inhabitants and 146,000 square kilometers, the most active Republican voters will meet this Monday from 7:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. Tuesday in mainland Spain) to choose the 40 delegates contributed by Iowa. At the convention that will nominate the Republican Party’s nominee for president in July.

40 delegates are distributed in proportion to the votes of each candidate. Its weight is minimal (1.6%) out of a total of about 2,500 in the convention, but Iowa’s influence is much greater because it is the first state to speak. It boosts the campaign, additional funding and media coverage. For this reason, candidates travel there for months and mix with the residents of this enormous corn barn, at state fairs and at all kinds of political events. Without the Iowa caucuses, it is possible that neither Jimmy Carter nor Barack Obama would have become president.

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“Iowa votes first, and the nominating campaign moves sequentially, moving from state to state. “This has important implications for who wins and who loses in the electoral process,” argue political science professors David Radlosk, Carolyn Tolbert, and Todd Donovan in their book. Why Iowa? (Why Iowa?).

At the same time, the caucus is not infallible. George W. Since Bush won in 2000, no winner has reached the nomination in a competitive Republican caucus. Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz won Iowa in 2008, 2012 and 2016 respectively, but the nominees were John McCain, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump. The latter came in second in the 2016 caucus, with 24% of the vote compared to 28% for Ted Cruz. Trump initially congratulated Cruz, but later said the election was “stolen” from him and demanded a new vote.

Democrats also hold caucuses and assemblies this Monday, but they have acknowledged that their ballots are by mail and open until March, so all attention is on the Republican side. About 750,000 registered Republican voters are eligible to vote. When the record was broken in 2016, there were 187,000 votes. A 20% turnout is usually normal, but in snow-covered Iowa, the expected temperature is 28 degrees below zero and there is a risk that people will stay home if there are no results.

Trump and other candidates have turned their recent campaign events into virtual ones because of travel difficulties. Since the beginning, the former president has spent far fewer days campaigning in the state than his main rivals. If DeSantis has visited all 99 counties of the state, Ramaswamy has visited all of them twice. Candidate Tracker Des Moines Register This week listed Trump’s 25 public rallies in the state since March, compared with more than 125 for DeSantis, 79 for Nikki Haley and more than 300 for Ramaswamy.

Iowa is a state with a majority white and conservative population in which evangelical Christians hold a critical weight. Despite Trump’s ethics, the evangelical vote was already key to getting him into the White House eight years ago. Christine Cobbs du Maze, author Jesus and John Wayne. How White Evangelicals Corrupted Faith and Divided a Nation, He explained in his book “the culmination of evangelicalism’s embrace of militant masculinity, an ideology that embraces patriarchal authority and condones brutal displays of power.” He drew parallels between Trump and actor John Wayne, “a symbol of American masculinity for generations of conservatives” and, over time, of “Christian masculinity” with his “vulgarness and braggadocio.”

This time, Trump doubled down. He released a video (God Made Trumps) In which, with the famous dead announcer’s voice reconstructed with artificial intelligence, he is presented as the true Messiah sent directly by God to save the United States. The video, along with biblical-sounding language, angered evangelical pastors in Iowa.

Trump is campaigning as if he were the current president. He did not participate in the debate of the candidates. This week, while Haley and DeSantis were at each other’s throats on CNN, he counter-programmed with a lighter interview on Fox News in which he tried to soften his message, denying his own words. If he does return to the White House, he said, he won’t become a dictator and devote his presidency to revenge — though not for lack of desire, but for lack of time, he explained. 4.6 million viewers watched it compared to 2.6 million for the debate.

Such clear wins among themselves are what Trump is looking for before doubts arise about whether he can finally win a presidential election, where moderates and independents hold the balance and Haley looks like a less controversial candidate. The calendar of primaries, however, will prevent him from closing the debate anytime soon. Iowa is followed by the New Hampshire primary on January 23, where Haley has strong support, but only 22 delegates are elected. In February, a trickle of caucuses (Nevada) and primaries (Virgin Islands, South Carolina and Michigan) will open everything up to decide the nomination in March.

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