Donald Trump has won the Iowa caucuses, strengthening his status as the front-runner in the Republican primary. Trump notably won despite spending just around $44,000 on advertisements targeting Iowa voters on Facebook and Instagram in the week that led up to the caucuses, data from the Meta ad library revealed, as reviewed by CNBC. The amount is a little less than what Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign spent – $45,000.
A source familiar with Trump’s travel plans said that the former president is set to follow up his Iowa victory with a trip to New York on Tuesday, January 16. He will be there to attend his civil trial in a defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll. He will then travel to New Hampshire for a rally.
In last week’s final NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll, a whopping 48% of likely caucus-goers selected Trump as their first choice. Nikki Haley was chosen by 20% and 16% chose Ron DeSantis. Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Texas pastor Ryan Binkley ran in single digits.
Earlier on Monday, January 15, before the caucuses, Trump had high hopes. “I don’t know about the total number of votes because, you know, it is a little cold out there, but not really, and remember, everybody is indoors,” he said during an interview with Jeff Stein on News/Talk 1540. “So you’re not standing outside. So I think it’s going to be very close to record-setting, maybe even record-setting.”
