Donald Trump vowed to ‘take the country’ back from Joe Biden after decimating his rivals in the Iowa Republican caucus on Monday night.
The former president, 77, praised all of his Republican rivals and paid tribute to his family – including Melania’s late mother-in-law – as he spoke to supporters after his 30-point win in the first primary contest.
It took just 30 minutes for Trump’s landslide victory to be called as thousands of his dike-hard supporters turned up to vote in sub-zero temperatures.
But Trump quickly looked forward and said the ‘big night is going to be in November when we take back our country’ in the general election.
‘I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together. I think they both actually did very well,’ Trump told a crowd of a few hundred supporters just hours after networks called the state for him.
Donald Trump has called for the U.S. to ‘come together’ and thanked all of his family after he decimated the rest of the Republican field in the Iowa caucus
The former president, 77, said wife Melania’s late mother Amalija Knavs was ‘looking down’ and would be ‘proud’ of the historic result
He called his rivals ‘Very smart people, very capable people.’
He also had kind words for Vivek Ramaswamy, after blasting him in the final days before the caucus – speaking shortly before Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
‘I also want to congratulate Vivek because he did one hell of a job. He came from zero … that’s an amazing job,’ Trump said.
Trump, who holds a lopsided lead in national polls, included calls for unity in his speech, even though Iowa represents just 1.6 per cent of the total delegates at stake in the fight for the nomination.
He called to ‘come together and straighten out the world and straighten out the problems.’
Trump sought to seize the momentum from his convincing win, even as the race for the GOP presidential nomination shifts immediately to New Hampshire, where Haley has been rising in the polls. DeSantis plans to hold events in South Carolina and New Hampshire on Tuesday, after failing to use his turnout organization to pull closer to Trump.
It came in a victory speech where he paid tribute to his late mother-in-law Amalija Knavs and thanked ‘my incredible wife’ former first lady Melania Trump.
He joked about his mother in law. ‘Boy did she take care of Barron. ‘That’s how he got so tall.’
Trump was joined onstage at his victory party by sons Eric and Don Jr., but there was no sign of daughter Ivanka.
Trump celebrated after storming to victory in the first primary contest in just 30 minutes by waiting on stage as Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA’ played to the crowd.
Trump paid tribute to all of his children, including son Barron who he said was ‘watching on TV’.
The historic landslide came despite Arctic temperatures and the Hawkeye State being battered by blizzards that were expected to decimate turnout.
It gives Trump a massive boost as he seeks to win the Republican presidential nomination and return to the White House in what would be the most remarkable political comeback in U.S. history.
The early call sparked outrage from the rest of the Republican field, with DeSantis’ campaign accusing the news networks of being involved in ‘election interference’.
Thousands of die-hard Iowans braved wind chills as low as minus 35 degrees and ignored frostbite warnings to head to their precincts to cast their votes.
Trump huddled inside the site in downtown Des Moines for more than an hour after cable networks and the AP infuriated Ron DeSantis by calling the race for him while caucuses were still tabulating support.
He was accompanied by his son Donald Trump, Jr., who has been a constant surrogate and who warned earlier Monday of a plot to ‘suppress the vote.’
The swiftness of the call got the jump on Trump’s campaign party planners. His followers hadn’t even arrived at the party yet by the time networks made the call.
It was only after he was declared the winner that his campaign cranked up the PA system to play Elvis Presley’s ‘Suspicious Minds.’
Supporters yelled ‘Trump! Trump!’ and ‘Build the wall!’ as they waited for the former president to appear, while a cash bar served drinks. Two large monitors showed a Fox News feed broadcasting the size of his victory.
Former First Lady Melania Trump ‘s mother Amalija Knavs, 78, has died after being hospitalized in Miami, Florida, over the holidays. She is pictured center with her daughter and Donald Trump in 2018
Knavs was a textile factory dealer in her native Slovenia when she met husband Viktor. The pair then moved to the U.S. and have been by Melania’s side during her career from modeling to the East Wing. She is pictured with her daughter in 2004
The former president, 77, holds a thumb’s up with son Don Jr. next to a TV screen showing Fox News projecting him to win the race
As of 10pm, Trump had more than 50 percent of the votes with Haley and DeSantis scrapping in second place
The historic landslide came despite Arctic temperatures and the Hawkeye State being battered by blizzards that were expected to decimate turnout
By the time he came out, his campaign had already said he won in a ‘landslide’ and allies including Rep. Elise Stefanik and the Make American Great Again PAC were calling for rivals to drop out of the race.
Also giving them a nudge was Trump surrogate Kari Lake.
She urged DeSantis to ‘take some time to go back to Florida. He just won that election. The people of Florida are counting on Governor DeSantis to go back and lead that … state. It’s a great state in this country. And I hope that he goes into some soul searching and recognizes that this isn’t just another political moment in history … It’s not his time.’
‘I hope Haley, Nikki Haley, will tell her big donors and the big military industrial complex, no, I’m not going to be your pawn. I’m going to stand behind President Trump,’ she urged Haley.
Trump’s celebration came while DeSantis and Haley were in a duel for second place, and a DeSantis aide called it ‘Absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote.’
‘The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet,’ complained aide Andrew Romero.
After the pleasantries, Trump fumed about illegal immigrants and vowed a crackdown on crime.
‘They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums,’ he said. ‘And their terrorists.’
He called for ‘unbelievable harsh penalties’ for people who carry out mass shootings.
‘I‘m going to come down very hard on criminals,’ he said.
It was shortly after 11 pm that Trump turned to the criminal and civil trials he is facing.
‘I go through a lot of courthouses because –they call that election interference,’ he said.
‘We can’t have that.’
‘The big night is going to be in November when we take back our country,’ he vowed, wrapping up a 22-minute speech.
Asked to assess the importance of Trump’s trials (head flies to New York for one tomorrow), Lake told DailyMail.com: ‘I think Americans just understand what’s going on,’ accusing some media members of ‘character assassination of a man who loves this country.’
Still to be determined was whether Trump would crack the 50-percent threshold, and whether one of his rivals would capture enough momentum to get a boost in New Hampshire or South Carolina.
Three caucus goers show up at the Franklin Jr. High School in Iowa, ready to cast their vote
Sharon McNutt holds paper ballots listing the names of the candidates in alphabetical order
Voters begin to arrive at a caucus site at Fellows Elementary School to choose their Republican candidate
Trump surrogate Kari Lake gushed about the win and called on rivals to get out.
‘Everybody and their brother knew President Trump was going to win. Question is how devoted to this country’s future were the people of Iowa. And tonight we discovered that Iowans are as amazing as we thought they were. They showed up in droves,’ she told DailyMail.com at Trump’s victory party.
‘I’m so proud of my home state,’ the native Iowan said.’
She brushed off the 50-percent threshold as a fixation. ‘Anything over 12 per cent was going to be a huge victory,’ she said of Trump’s victory margin. ‘And I think he’s going to get over that 50 per cent. I hope so. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll take the victory any day.
Asked to assess the importance of Trump’s trials (head flies to New York for one tomorrow), she said, ‘I think Americans just understand what’s going on,’ accusing some media members of ‘character assassination of a man who loves this country.’
She called for DeSantis and Haley to drop out, but used a soft touch. She urged DeSantis to ‘take sojme time to go back to Florida. He just won that election. The people of Florida are counting on Governor DeSantis to go back and lead that … state. It’s a great state in this country. And I hope that he goes into some soul searching and recognizes that this isn’t just another political moment in history … It’s not his time.’
Then she took a slap at Haley, saying ‘ I hope Haley, Nikki Haley, will tell her big donors and the big military industrial complex, no, I’m not going to be your pawn. I’m going to stand behind President Trump. We’re going to save this country. We’re going to not waste hundreds of millions more in ads going to New Hampshire.’