Iowa caucuses: Donald Trump trounces Republican rivals, but praises Vivek Ramaswamy

Donald Trump, who scored a record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday in the run-up to the US presidential elections with his rivals languishing far behind, heaped praises on Indian-origin Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the 2024 Republican race after finishing fourth.

“He did a hell of a job. He came from zero, and he has a big per cent,” Donald Trump hailed the 38-year-old Indian-American entrepreneur in his speech.

Trump’s praise comes a day after he trained his sights on rival Ramaswamy, casting him as a threat to his Make America Great Again movement in what appeared to be a shift in strategy two days before the Iowa caucuses.

“Vote for ‘TRUMP,’ don’t waste your vote! Vivek is not MAGA,” Trump said as he arrived in Iowa. The comments, which appeared in a social media post, ended what had been an informal marriage of convenience with the 38-year-old Ohio entrepreneur and first-time political candidate.

Ramaswamy, on the other, endorsed the former president and urged Republican voters to put an “America First patriot” in the White House.

Taking to social media platform X, Ramaswamy stated, “This entire campaign is about speaking the TRUTH. We did not achieve our goal tonight, & we need an America-First patriot in the White House. The people spoke loud & clear about who they want. Tonight I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Donald J. Trump and will do everything I can to make sure he is the next U.S. President.”

Iowa is the first of the state-by-state contests where Republican party voters pick their candidate who will almost certainly face President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 5 elections.

Trump, 77, won the Iowa caucuses in a landslide with governor Ron DeSantis of Florida securing a critical but distant second-place finish in the contest that took place amid a blistering cold.

Trump won the Iowa Republican caucuses by winning 51 per cent of the votes, an unprecedented margin, kickstarting his bid to win his party’s third consecutive presidential nomination. The American business tycoon’s victory was the largest margin in the history of Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, easily surpassing the previous winning margin of 12.8 per cent set in 1988 by the late Senator Bob Dole.

While, DeSantis finished a distant second, just ahead of former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.

The results left Trump with a tighter grip on the GOP nomination, though it could take several more months for anyone to formally become the party’s standard bearer. The magnitude of Trump’s victory, however, posed significant questions for both DeSantis and Haley. Neither candidate appeared poised to exit the race, though they leave Iowa struggling to claim making much progress in trying to become Trump’s strongest challenger.

A shrinking field will compete there after conservative entrepreneur Ramaswamy suspended his campaign after a disappointing fourth-place finish and endorsed Trump.