Returning to Iowa, Trump urges voters to caucus for him

MAQUOKETA — Jarrett Driscoll and Logan Bauer, both 17 and high school seniors, arrived at the Jackson County Fairgrounds Tuesday night and slept in their cars.

They're goal? To be first in line Wednesday to see Donald Trump, the former Republican president making his third bid for the Oval Office. They skipped school to be there. "A sick day," Driscoll said with a smile.

They weren't quite first in line, but they were close.

Their families are strong Republicans and "Trump is the guy," Driscoll said.

They were among several hundred people gathered Wednesday afternoon at the Jackson County Fairgrounds' Janssen Hall in Maquoketa to see Trump speak. Nearly every folding chair set up in the exhibition room was full, and more people stood along the perimeter.

Having campaigned far less often in Iowa than many of his 2024 rivals, Trump was making his first of five Iowa visits planned through the end of October. He spoke later Wednesday at a rally in Dubuque.

The visits are aimed at converting what polls in Iowa show as a commanding lead into securing committed supporters and volunteers as Trump's campaign tries to score a massive victory that would deny his rivals momentum they hope to come out of Iowa and effectively end the primary on caucus day.

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Trump asked those in attendance Wednesday for their support during the Jan. 15 caucuses, and lavished praise on Iowa. He predicted he would win the caucuses in a "historic landslide."

He touted his work during his administration on trade agreements and the southern border, and criticized one of his opponents for the nomination — Florida Gov, Ron DeSantis — who he claimed is “against ethanol” and “wants to end Social Security."

In a wide-ranging speech lasting about an hour, Trump promised to open more land for oil drilling, close the U.S. Department of Education, ban "critical race theory" from schools and keep transgender women out of women's sports. He claimed if he'd been in office, Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan wouldn't have happened. On inflation, he asserted: "We're going to stop it."

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David Troester, 52, of Clinton, said Trump "said all the right things, and he's doing the right things." Troester, who initially caucused for Republican Ben Carson in 2016 before turning the corner on Trump, said he wants to see construction of a border wall resume.

"We don't need a unifier," Troester said. "The opinions are so far apart, there's no middle ground. We need someone to set things right."

Outside, a salesman walked past people waiting in line early Wednesday advertising buttons with Trump's mug shot and in all caps text above his photo read WANTED. Below it: FOR PRESIDENT.

Trump was indicted in Fulton County in Georgia on racketeering charges in connection with attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The Trump campaign has used his booking mug to his advantage. According to figures from the campaign provided to Politico, it raised more than $4 million in the 24 hours after he was booked.

Trump’’s various legal troubles were, for many there, only more reason to support him.

"Even if he's in a jail cell," said Cheryl Newport, 62, of Bettendorf. She and her sister, both retired, huddled under umbrellas in a line that snaked around Janssen Hall as rain sputtered on and off. Newport saw Trump in Davenport in March and volunteered for the campaign at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines with her sister, Mary Ann Maere, 58, of Moline.

Of other hopefuls running for the GOP nomination, Newport said she likes a few but "I don't believe they have the fortitude to get the job done like Mr. Trump."

"He loves our country," she said. "He's not in it for money or for the fame because he's already had that."

Trump arrives in Iowa as he has drawn some ire after suggesting bans on abortions after about six weeks that states, including Iowa, have enacted are "terrible." Iowa’s ban has been put on hold pending a court ruling.

Trump made his abortion comments in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," responding to the interviewer pointing to a ban on abortions after six weeks that DeSantis signed into law in Florida.

"I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake," Trump said of DeSantis.

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who signed in April a similar law, responded on social media that "It's never a 'terrible thing' to protect innocent life."

Attendees the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus talked to at Wednesday’s event said they planned to support Trump and none named abortion as a top issue of concern.

In a call with reporters ahead of Trump's event, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart pushed back on Trump's comments that he could bring the country together on the issue of abortion, pointing to Trump's court picks.

“Trump wants to talk women across the country into believing that he is not directly responsible for the near total bans that are sprouting up across the country. But we will not fall for that. In Iowa we almost saw a near-total ban go into effect because Donald Trump nominated the three justices that realize the MAGA goal of overturning Roe vs. Wade and stripping away the constitutional right to abortion that Americans have relied on for nearly 50 years.”

Hart said President Joe Biden and Democrats "support codifying Roe vs. Wade" and will "keep doing everything in their power to protect reproductive rights."

The Associated Press and Caleb McCullough of The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.