Morning Report — Trump wins in Iowa; DeSantis finishes No. 2

“I feel great,” former President Trump enthused Monday night on Fox News Digital as media outlets projected what turned out to be his 51.1 percent victory in the Iowa caucuses, where 40 delegates were in play. 

It was a record-setting GOP win, showcasing Trump’s pull in a state that trended Democratic in presidential election years until 2016, when the then-New York business celebrity won the state by more than 9 percent. The largest margin of victory for an Iowa Republican caucus had been 12.8 percentage points for Bob Dole in 1988. 

Monday’s showing was a commanding step in Trump’s race to lock up the Republican presidential nomination for a third consecutive election cycle while pummeling President Biden and defending himself this year as both a candidate and a criminal defendant. Trump this morning will appear in a New York City court charged with defamation. 

Iowa voters handed the former president an invitation to try to repeat his party dominance in the New Hampshire primary next week, where polls indicate a closer GOP nomination contest.  

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis finished second in the Hawkeye State with 21.2 percent of the vote, pleased and more than a little relieved that his heavy campaign investment in the first-in-the-nation caucuses and each of its 99 counties kept him in the chase, albeit as a runner-up to Trump by nearly 30 points.  

“We’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa!” DeSantis told cheering supporters Monday night. “People want to have hope for this country’s future and that’s what we represent. We represent a chance to reverse the madness that we’ve seen in this country.”  

The New York Times: DeSantis’s Iowa letdown: A distant second place behind Trump.   

Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, finished behind DeSantis with 19.1 percent. Her campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, issued a statement arguing it’s down to a two-person race with the Iowa victor: “Only Trump and Nikki Haley having substantial support in both New Hampshire and South Carolina,” Ankney wrote. Haley is betting that her fortunes can rise in New Hampshire, where moderate voters say they agree with her “chaos-follows-Trump” warnings, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ average of polls. 

“When you look at how well we’re doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina and beyond, I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” Haley said in an effort to spin a momentum narrative from her her third-place finish.

The decision by news organizations to call the race early for Trump while Iowans were caucusing did not sit well with the DeSantis campaign and its allies. Ken Cuccinelli, a founder of Never Back Down, the main super PAC backing DeSantis, told The Hill that the decision to call the race was “absolutely outrageous.” 

To note: Entrance polls gave a window into DeSantis and Haley’s relative strengths. Haley won over caucusgoers with college degrees and those identifying as moderate, as well as the third of voters who believe Biden won the 2020 election and disagree with Trump’s false assertion that it was stolen. DeSantis pulled ahead among late deciders and voters whose most important issue is abortion (The New York Times). 

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who finished a distant fourth at less than 8 percent in Iowa, suspended his campaign Monday and endorsed Trump. “Nobody knew who we were, nobody knew what we were up to, but together, we have created a movement that I think is going to carry our nation to the next level,” he told supporters in Des Moines (The Hill). 

Sidebar: Turnout in Iowa amid frigid caucus weather is on track to be historically low, perhaps 110,000, according to The New York Times. The Trump and DeSantis campaigns initially prepared for more than 200,000 caucusgoers, which would have eclipsed the previous high of 187,000 in 2016.  

The New York Times: In Iowa, GOP campaigns and PACs spent more than $100 million on ads. 

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, 70, was discharged Monday from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was admitted as an emergency patient with complications Jan. 1 following Dec. 22 surgery for prostate cancer. The Pentagon previously said the secretary performed duties while in the hospital.  

In a statement thanking the Walter Reed staff, Austin said, “as I continue to recuperate and perform my duties from home, I’m eager to fully recover and return as quickly as possible to the Pentagon.” Biden says he has confidence in the secretary, chalking up as a lapse in judgment Austin’s failure until Jan. 4 to inform the White House and Pentagon officials about his hospitalization. The Pentagon inspector general last week announced it will conduct a probe. Lawmakers also want to examine the mishandled Pentagon protocol and some called for Austin to be fired, a recommendation the president has rejected.  

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LEADING THE DAY 

Biden, with the November election in mind, aimed his federal holiday messaging at young people, Black Americans and those supportive of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy during an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton Monday in which he touted the racial and ethnic diversity he assembled in the executive branch and his success in erasing $132 billion in federal student loan debt amid court challenges. “It’s going to change people’s lives,” Biden said of the economic benefits of reducing or eliminating college debt for those who qualify. 

The president — well aware of the lukewarm reception he’s getting from young people and Black men, according to recent polls — referred to his selection of Vice President Kamala Harris as the first female elected to that role. She’ll participate in a live interview with ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday in New York City after being shadowed by ABC on Monday in South Carolina, where Biden and Harris are trying to turn out Black voters in November. “Let me just tell you this, no matter who the Republican nominee is, we’re winning. We’re winning,” Harris said during an interview. 

Campaign stops today:  

✈️ Trump plans to campaign in Atkinson, N.H., at 5 p.m. EST.  

✈️ DeSantis will be in Greenville, S.C., for a campaign event this morning before heading to Henniker, N.H., for a meet-and-greet event and a CNN town hall at 9 p.m. ET. 

✈️ Haley scheduled a town hall Bretton Woods, N.H., at 6 p.m. ET. 

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ZOOM IN 

INTERNATIONAL 

YEMEN’S HOUTHI REBELS fired a missile that struck a U.S.-owned ship Monday in the Gulf of Aden, less than a day after they launched an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea. The attack further escalates tensions gripping the Red Sea after American-led strikes on the group. The Houthis’ attacks have affected global shipping, targeting a crucial corridor linking Asian and Middle Eastern energy and cargo shipments to the Suez Canal onward to Europe. 

The Biden administration said the U.S. will defend its assets and interests in the region, and tried to portray its strikes as a last-resort option following repeated warnings to the Houthis (CNN and The Washington Post). 

CONFIRMED DEATHS IN GAZA have surpassed 24,000, with thousands more buried under the rubble and presumed dead. More than 100 days into Israel’s war against Hamas in the enclave, the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been displaced and are facing widespread hunger and devastation. The ongoing assault is threatening to pitch the region into a wider war (NBC News).  

THE TO-DO LIST OF GLOBAL PRIORITIES has grown for this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Business, political and other elites are gathering in the Alpine town for the meeting that kicks off in earnest today and runs through Friday. 

More than 60 heads of state and government, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Zelensky are expected in Switzerland. On the agenda? Climate change, brewing conflict in the Middle East, the world economy, Ukraine’s defense against Russia and artificial intelligence, among other topics (The Hill). 

“Davos is easily mocked,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of the Chatham House think tank. “But in current times it is hard to get people together to talk in a room on shared global issues and the value of face-to-face conversations is very real, as the COVID-19 pandemic showed.” 

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ELSEWHERE 

TRUMP WORLD 

The former president will spend part of Tuesday in a New York City courtroom as a defendant in a defamation trial before campaigning in New Hampshire. 

Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina withdrew Monday from Trump’s New York legal cases. He had represented the former president in a criminal hush money case — one of four indictments Trump faces — and a sexual battery civil lawsuit brought by longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who won a $5 million judgment against Trump last year. Carroll today is challenging the former president a second time while seeking damages for defamation.  

Trump has a pattern of cycling cycle through lawyers, at times issuing major shake-ups in his representation at key moments. The defendant changed his legal team in Georgia hours before he surrendered on criminal charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and he similarly did so in Florida hours after he was indicted there on charges over alleged mishandling of classified documents. 

The New York Times: As Trump continues to insult Carroll, the second defamation trial opens. 

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Photo—CLOSER-Emmys Succession: 

THE CLOSER 

And finally … 🎞️ While caucusgoers shivered in Iowa, some of entertainment’s brightest gathered for the 2023 Emmy Awards. The ceremony, which was postponed during last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, was hosted by actor and comedian Anthony Anderson. HBO’s “Succession,” considered a favorite, swept up six awards — including best drama series — on Monday, while Hulu’s “The Bear” dominated the comedy category with the top prize and three acting awards. Netflix’s “Beef” was close behind with five wins, including best limited series. 

Anderson kicked off the nostalgia-packed show with musical tributes to “Good Times,” “The Facts of Life” and “Miami Vice,” and then introduced his mother as a very important part of the night’s comedic proceedings: She held up a sign while scolding anyone who took too long with their speech (The Washington Post). 

CBS News has a list of all the Emmy winners here. 

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