Former US president Donald Trump on Monday scored a record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses with his rivals languishing far behind, a victory that affirmed his grip on the Republican presidential nomination.
In what was the lowest-turnout caucus in 25 years, participants endured life-threatening cold and dangerous driving conditions to meet in hundreds of schools, churches and community centers across the state, but those who ventured out delivered a roughly 30-point win for Trump that smashed the record for a contested Iowa Republican caucus with a margin of victory exceeding Bob Dole’s nearly 13-percentage-point win in 1988.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finished a distant second, just ahead of former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.
Photo: AFP
The results left Trump with a tighter grip on the Republican nomination, although it could take several more months for anyone to formally become the party’s standard bearer.
The magnitude of Trump’s victory posed significant questions for both DeSantis and Haley. Neither candidate appeared poised to exit the race, although they leave Iowa struggling to claim making much progress in trying to become Trump’s strongest challenger.
Having repeatedly pledged vengeance against his political opponents, Trump offered a message of unity in his victory speech.
“We want to come together, whether it’s Republican or Democrat or liberal or conservative,” Trump said. “We’re going to come together. It’s going to happen soon.”
The Republican contest moves swiftly to New Hampshire, which is to hold its primary on Tuesday next week. A shrinking field is to compete there after conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign following a disappointing fourth-placed finish and endorsed Trump.
DeSantis yesterday first headed to South Carolina, a conservative stronghold where the Feb. 24 contest could prove pivotal. He was to head to New Hampshire later in the day.
Haley plans to compete vigorously in New Hampshire, where she hopes to be more successful with the state’s independent voters.
“When you look at how well we’re doing in New Hampshire and in South Carolina and beyond, I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” she said.
In a preview of a remarkable balancing act Trump might have to manage in the months ahead, he was expected to be in court in New York yesterday. A jury was poised to consider whether he should pay additional damages to a columnist who last year won a US$5 million jury award against Trump for sex abuse and defamation. It is just one of multiple legal challenges facing the former president.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
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