Donald Trump wins Iowa caucuses, as Haley and DeSantis vie for second

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Donald Trump will win the Iowa caucuses, according to projections from the Associated Press, giving him his first victory in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination.

The call by the AP, which is followed by most major news organisations and political campaigns, came just a half-hour after Iowans across the state began their caucuses and a trickle of results began to come in.

Caucus-goers at an evangelical church in the Des Moines suburb of Clive were taken aback by the AP’s early call, with voters receiving news alerts on their phones even as they were still listening to speeches about the candidates.

Several at the caucus began showing each other their phones as one voter gave a speech in support of Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is in a tight race for second place.

The AP’s early declaration of Trump’s victory drew a rebuke from Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whose campaign said it was “outrageous” that media organisations would “participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote”.

By 9pm in Iowa, two hours after the caucuses got under way, Trump held 53 per cent of the votes counted, with 43 per cent of precincts having reported their results. DeSantis was in second, with 20 per cent, just ahead of Haley in third.

Trump entered the caucuses with a big lead in opinion polls with a shrinking field of Republicans vying for the party’s presidential nomination.

Trump commanded the support of more than half of Iowa’s likely Republican caucus-goers, according to a FiveThirtyEight average of state polls on the eve of the caucuses — a lead that proved unassailable, even in a state that has thrown up shock results in previous caucuses.

“I think we are going to have a tremendous night tonight,” Trump told reporters as he left…