Trump celebrates victory in Iowa caucuses ahead of return to NY court: Live updates

Here’s Eric Garcia on why the Republican presidential primary ended the moment Donald Trump announced his intention run for another term as president at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022.

The former governor of South Carolina charged into Iowa as 2024 kicked off with the hopes of knocking out Ron DeSantis and snatching a second-place finish, buoyed by a late-game polling surge.

Instead, she ended the night in a close third — all the while declaring that, despite DeSantis pulling off his own sort-of victory, that it was now a “two-person race”.

She now heads to New Hampshire, boosted by her rising poll numbers but with her momentum blunted, at least to some degree, by the lack of a result here tonight.

John Bowden has more on what the future holds for Haley.

Nikki Haley has managed to claw back a minor victory in the Iowa caucuses, beating Trump in a lone county and ruining his clean sweep across the state.

The former ambassador to the United Nations trumped the former president by just one vote in Johnson County, with 1,271 votes to 1,270 and 99 per cent of votes tallied.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis trailed behind both candidates in the county with 755 votes.

Here’s more from Rachel Sharp.

Now that the Trumpian biotech entrepreneur has suspended his campaign after a poor showing in Iowa, he is expected to step out on the campaign trial to endorse his idol as all eyes turn to New Hampshire.

But could he be in line for more than that? Might he even end up as Trump’s running mate?

“Pretty safe to say it won’t be Vivek,” Jason Miller, Trump’s senior adviser told The New York Post this week, immediately shooting down that idea.

But back in August, the former president had told a conservative TV host that he was seriously mulling Ramaswamy as a potential contender for the role, so what’s changed?

The winner is now striking a much more gracious tone on social media, thanking Iowa Republicans for their support and Ramaswamy after he bowed, only days after telling the public not to be “duped” into backing him.

He has also reached out to former enemy Marco Rubio and Rick Scott after the pair endorsed him over the weekend.

“Little Marco” is now “highly respected”, it seems.

If you’re just joining us, former president Donald Trump has overwhelmingly won the Iowa caucuses in the first official contest of this year’s Republican presidential primaries.

Trump posted a double-digit victory in Iowa eight years after he lost the caucuses to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. The front-runner far-outpaced his nearest competitors, Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s US ambassador to the United Nations in his administration.

His victory in Iowa breaks Bob Dole’s record for a margin of victory of 13 points in 1996 and George W Bush’s 10.5-point victory in 2000. Both candidates went on to become the Republican nominee for president, a future that seems all but certain for Trump despite dozens of criminal charges against him.

Here’s what last night’s victor had to say for himself over his resounding victory over Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The three-minute clip, posted to Truth Social on Sunday evening, opens on grainy footage of an LP turning on a record player, broadcasting an apparently ancient sermon in which a preacher intones: “And on 14 June 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said: ‘I need a caretaker.’

“So God gave us Trump,” the voiceover adds.

Boos from the crowd drowned out the woman before the former president taunted: “Go home to Mommy! Your mommy’s worried.”

Fani Willis, the district attorney of Georgia’s Fulton County, seemed to acknowledge for the first time the allegations of an affair directed at her during her address to a church congregation. She also defended the special prosecutor she appointed for the election interference case involving former president Donald Trump, without directly naming him.

“I hope for y’all this week I don’t look like what I’ve been through,” she joked at the Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church during a service to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day on Sunday.

Maroosha Muzaffar has reports: