In Iowa, Trump dwarfs Democratic competition
by Byron York | January 31, 2020 06:24 AM
DES MOINES, Iowa — Of course Donald Trump packed the Knapp Center arena on the campus of Drake University, filling all 7,152 seats in the stands, with more on the floor. Of course another 1,000 people or so, kept out by the fire marshal, hung around in sub-freezing temperatures outside to watch the president's speech on a big screen. Of course the Trump event dwarfed those of any of his Democratic rivals days before the Iowa caucuses.
Here in the first-voting state, President Trump is just bigger than his opponents. And if that message isn't made clear by just looking around, he spent a good deal of his speech reminding the audience of it. He is big, and they are small. He's on top of his game, and they can't get it together. He matters and they don't.
"Joe had a crowd so small the other day that they set up a round table," Trump said of former Vice President Joe Biden, as the crowd laughed. "Joe, Joe, he always gets the name wrong. How many times has he missed it? He's in Iowa, he says, 'Great to be in the great state of Ohio,' and they say, 'Joe, you're in Iowa.' You can't do that."
"What happened to Mini Mike?" Trump asked, referring to former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. "Where's he? He's not running. He's skipping four or five states. Mini Mike — I've had him up to here." With that, Trump raised his hand to mid-chest, and the crowd roared again.
"How about Boot Edge Edge?" Trump said. Just referring to the common pronunciation helper is enough to dismiss former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. "They say, 'Edge Edge,'" Trump said. "I don't see that one."
Why is Trump in Iowa? Yes, there actually are Republican caucuses here on Monday night, but the fact that you might not even know that shows how little they matter, given the overwhelming Republican support for the president. Yes, Trump's hapless GOP Never Trump opponents Bill Weld and Joe Walsh are wandering around the state somewhere, drawing a few people to this or that coffee shop while Trump fills the Knapp Center. Yes, Republican leaders are happy to see the president in their state.
But Trump's appearance was for a higher purpose: To mess with his Democratic opponents. Just zoom in on Air Force One, stage a rally bigger than anything they could muster in their wildest dream and zoom back to Washington, having shown again that he is big and they are small.
Trump talked about many things — he spoke for 1 hour and 27 minutes. But he spent perhaps the most time on trade and the economy, touting his U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the recently completed first stage of his trade deal with China. Iowa farmers stuck with Trump through the tariff battles, and now both deals will improve the Iowa economy, he said over and over and over. Farmers will need bigger tractors. They'll need bigger harvests just to deal with all the new business.
Just to drive home the message, on either side of the giant blue "KEEP AMERICA GREAT" banner behind Trump were two red banners, nearly as big, with the same message: "JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!"
Amid all the talk of the drama of the day in Washington, in Iowa, Trump is pushing one big point, and that is: My presidency is making your lives better, and you would be crazy to vote for anybody else in November.
Obviously people who come to a Trump rally have taken the trouble to come to a Trump rally. They support the president. But Trump seemed to have a special bond with many in the crowd. Some of them had doubts about him in 2016. Some of them supported other candidates, particularly Ted Cruz, in the caucuses that year. But they are happy with what he has done in the White House — the falling unemployment rate, the rising wages, the judges, the killing of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and Qassem Soleimani. All those things that make up the controversy of the day on CNN and MSNBC? They're not bothered.
And of the biggest controversy of the day, the impeachment trial that was going on precisely as Trump spoke? The one word they used most commonly to describe the Democratic push to remove the president was "waste." It was a waste of Congress' time, a waste of money, a waste of everybody's attention.
"They're wasting time," said Dave Reinders of Urbandale.
"A waste of time and dollars," said Chris Ward of Ackworth.
"What a giant waste of time," said Curt Hora of Ankeny.
"Most of the people I encounter feel impeachment was a waste of time," said Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a state senator from Iowa's 41st District who is running for a House seat.
Some used other words to describe it (scam, sham, joke, distraction), but the overwhelming sense is that impeachment has just been a waste of everybody's energy. They're not likely to change their minds by November.
Trump's own treatment of impeachment fits into that sense. "While we're proudly creating jobs and killing terrorists, congressional Democrats are consumed with partisan rage and obsessed with a deranged witch hunt hoax," he told the crowd, to boos and hisses. "We're having probably the best years that we've ever had in the history of our country — and I just got impeached!"
"Can you believe these people? I got impeached," Trump continued. "They impeached the president. No, it's not gonna work. Watch. Just watch."
It certainly won't work in Iowa, where Trump won a state that Barack Obama won twice. Now, no Democrat approaches Obama's stature, and Trump towers over presidential politics. That, too, is not likely to change by November.