To the surprise of no one, Donald Trump won the Republican Iowa caucuses on Monday night, officially opening a presidential primary campaign expected to progress, swiftly and decisively, to a rerun of 2020’s general election race: Trump versus Biden, the Sequel.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley finished far behind, in second and third, a fatuous and unavailing political spectacle, since the pair of alleged Trump challengers both pursued the novel strategy of barely criticizing, let alone attacking, the prohibitive front-runner against whom they purportedly are running.
Terrified of offending Trump’s voters, with the cult-like devotion they bestow upon their leader, DeSantis and Haley in Iowa instead performed a kind of campaign ape dance, assailing each other while ignoring the ferocious 800-pound gorilla who dominates the primary landscape.