Former President Trump said he felt “greatly honored” and “really invigorated” after numerous media outlets projected he would win the Iowa caucuses shortly after the proceedings got underway.
“It really is an honor that, minutes after, they’ve announced I’ve won, against very credibly competition — great competition, actually,” Trump told Fox News Digital in his first comments after the race was called.
“We have to get our country back,” he continued. “Our country has gone through so many bad things over the last three years, and it is continuing to go through bad things.”
“I feel really invigorated and strong for our country. We want to Make America Great Again — the greatest slogan ever — and the fact is, that’s what we did,” he added. “We’re going to quickly do it all again. … We are going to fix our border and we are going to do it and do it quickly.”
Decision Desk HQ, the Associated Press, NBC, CNN, Fox News and others projected a Trump victory roughly 30 minutes after the caucuses officially began, based on early returns and projected data.
The calls were made as Iowans continued to caucus, which quickly led to criticisms of the projections from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s camapign.
The DeSantis campaign, which has poured time and resources into Iowa, accused the media of “election interference” by projecting a Trump victory so soon after caucusing began.
“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,” DeSantis campaign spokesperson Andrew Romeo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet.”