Trump Cruises to Easy Win in Iowa Caucuses

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Donald Trump has won Monday night's Iowa caucuses in the GOP primary. The AP called it quickly, roughly 30 minutes after the first results started coming in. About the only suspense in regard to Trump is whether he will wind up with 50% of the vote, and whether he will win by a record margin (Bob Dole has the mark at nearly 13 percentage points). The bigger issue for the overall campaign is whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley will finish second, and whether DeSantis will do well enough to fend off calls that he drop from the race ahead of next week's first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire.

The New York Times offers some quick big-picture analysis of the Iowa victory, which it notes Trump failed to secure in his 2016 campaign: "Regardless of what comes next, Mr. Trump's Iowa victory amounts to a remarkable resurrection of a political career that had once appeared in tatters." Politico similarly observes that he goes into New Hampshire "with few signs of vulnerability" and where he still holds a large lead in the polls despite recent progress made by Haley. The quick win suggests it could also be a short primary reason should Trump rack up delegates and deprive his rivals of a path to victory, per the Wall Street Journal. (More Iowa caucuses stories.)