Losing one-term presidents almost never mount subsequent

successful primary campaigns, much less pull off landslides

that demonstrate utter dominance of their party. Trump
transformed the GOP in his populist, nationalist, nihilistic
image in 2016. By claiming 50% of the vote in the biggest
win in caucus history, putting him on course to his third
consecutive nomination, he showed that eight years after
his outsider presidential victory, the current GOP is entirely
his party.

“The big night is going to be in November, when we take

back our country,” Trump told his first proper victory party
since he shocked the world by winning the 2016 election.
His MAGA-hat wearing crowd greeted him with chants of
“Trump, Trump, Trump” beneath two vast screens reading
“Trump wins Iowa!”

Trump will win Iowa Republican caucuses, CNN projects

But the ex-president’s rebound is more stunning for another
reason. He won despite 91 criminal charges and other legal
entanglements that threaten his freedom and his fortune. In
a head-spinning snapshot of the unprecedented times, he’s
expected to show up in a courtroom in Manhattan on
Tuesday morning for the opening of a defamation trial.

His Iowa triumph came three years and nine days after he
told a mob to “fight like hell” before it ransacked the US
Capitol in an attempt to thwart the congressional
certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
Trump’s dominance on Monday night shows that among the
most committed Republican voters, there is no price for him
to pay for the worst attack on an election in modern history.
In fact, his successful leveraging of his criminal plight to
paint a narrative of persecution is the superpower that
renewed his bond with GOP base voters and left his rivals
with an impossible conundrum about how to exploit his
liabilities.

His caucus victory also demonstrates the success of

Trump’s election denial strategy, which has convinced
millions of GOP voters of the false belief he was illegally
ejected from power in 2020. For Americans who believe
Biden’s warning that Trump is the “most anti-democratic
president with a small ‘d’ in American history,” Monday night
will have sown utter dread.

Trump’s vow to win a second term dedicated to “retribution”

against his enemies, his labeling of political opponents as
“vermin” and his warnings that immigrants are “poisoning
the blood” of America, which are reminiscent of 1930s
dictators, were no disqualification in Iowa. Instead, the
president who attempted to overturn democracy to stay in
power used democracy far more effectively than any of his
Republican opponents to win an electoral endorsement
from GOP voters who want him back in the White House.