Donald Trump celebrates Iowa Poll lead as he rallies for caucus support

CORALVILLE — Former President Donald Trump celebrated his recent surge in Iowa polling and criticized his rival GOP candidates Wednesday in Coralville.

“We are leading by a lot, but you have to go out and vote,” Trump said, calling for Iowans to go to the Republican caucuses Jan. 15, 2024. “… Sometimes when you’re leading by a lot, everyone says, ‘Oh, why should I go and vote?’ The margin of victory is so important — and frankly, bad things are going to be happening if you don’t.”

The former president held an evening rally in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Coralville Hotel and Conference Center on the heels of a successful showing in the most recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll. His longtime lead grew to 51% of likely Republican caucusgoers who said Trump was their top choice.

His closest competitors, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, are still trailing Trump by double digits, at 19% and 16% respectively in the most recent poll.

Trump celebrated the “big beautiful poll” results, saying that his lead was historic. He praised J. Ann Selzer of polling firm Selzer & Company, who conducts the Iowa Poll, as a “very powerful” and talented pollster.

“Of course, if my numbers were bad, I wouldn’t be saying that,” Trump said, as the audience laughed. “I’d say, ‘You’re at terrible polls’ … But no, she’s very good.”

With the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses less than five weeks away, Trump’s campaign is working to lock down Iowans’ support, hoping to cut off fellow Republicans’ presidential campaigns in the first-in-the-nation contest.