Trump Wins Landslide Iowa Victory, Ahead Of US Republican Presidential Nomination

Former President Donald Trump has won a landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses, cementing his status as the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

But Florida Governor Ron Desantis edges out former United Nations (UN) Ambassador Nikki Haley to take a distant second place, the BBC’s United States (US) partner CBS projects.

Trump hails his victory in a speech to supporters, saying he wants to straighten up the problems of the world.

Iowa is the first of the state-by-state contests where republican voters pick their white house candidate.

Haley had hoped to ride polling momentum to come second, but Desantis’s relentless campaigning in the state paid off.

Meanwhile, Biotech Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump – he had caused a stir in early debates but failed to gain traction.

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Whoever wins the republican nomination will face a Democrat, almost certainly Joe Biden, in the November presidential election.

Instead of attacking DeSantis and Haley as he had repeatedly done throughout the campaign, Trump held out an olive branch, describing his Republican rivals as very smart people, very capable people.

Trump’s victory was the largest-ever vote share in a contested Iowa caucus, beating the 41 percent won by George W Bush in 2000.

It showed his continued grip on the Republican party, with voters backing a man facing dozens of federal criminal charges.

The result left DeSantis and Haley each claiming to be in a head-to-head contest with Trump.

Both candidates had hoped to emerge from Iowa as the most plausible challenger to Trump for the party’s nomination.

The Iowa votes determine the state’s 40 delegates to July’s Republican National Convention, at which delegates from across the US select the party’s presidential nominee.