Trump — and his lies — triumph in Iowa

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Former President Donald Trump won decisively in Monday's Iowa caucus. So did his lies, many of which have become an article of faith among Republican voters. Both developments present a challenge to our democracy.

Electorally, Trump's triumph, with 51% of the total vote, was complete and convincing, falling just one vote short from a statewide 99-county sweep. His margin of victory set an Iowa caucus record for a nonincumbent. And polling by major media organizations showed him winning almost every major demographic group — including and especially evangelicals, who trended to Ted Cruz in 2016, Trump's first foray into Iowa — reflecting the fact that the MAGA movement is now the Republican establishment.

But we would urge voters in other states to stay engaged — even though Trump's results were so resounding that the fight for second place may not end up being consequential. Ron DeSantis narrowly edged Nikki Haley (21.2% to 19.1%), meaning both will slog on to next week's New Hampshire primary while continuing to divide the non-Trump vote.

Whether a competitive campaign continues on to South Carolina remains to be seen. What is visible is victory on the horizon for Trump's quest to regain the Republican nomination. The results of a court case — either from the four indictments and 91 charges he faces, or the attempts to disqualify him from the ballot on constitutional grounds — could yet derail him.

But even that might not do it for Republicans, since "63% of caucus goers said they'd consider him fit for public office even if he were hypothetically convicted of a crime," according to caucus polling conducted by a consortium of ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Edison Research. What's more — and what's worse — is that the lie underlying many of the charges Trump faces has taken root among Republicans. In fact, in Iowa 66% of poll respondents "echoed Trump's false claim that [President] Joe Biden did not legitimately win the presidency in 2020."

Trump did nothing to dispel that lie during his acceptance speech on Monday night, and pledged to end vote-by-mail, early voting and other protocols proven to be safe, sound ways to raise turnout. He even gave a special shout-out to Kari Lake, running for U.S. Senate from Arizona, whose 2022 defeat in that state's gubernatorial race has led to similar lies about a stolen election.

So perhaps it's not surprising that according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research caucus polling, about 4 in 10 said they were "not too confident or not at all confident in the integrity of elections nationwide" (although none seemed to question the veracity of voting when their candidate won so handily). And Trump's daily denunciations of the Justice Department may be behind the nearly 6 in 10 who told the Associated Press that they "have little to no confidence in the American legal system" — just the most recent manifestation of the MAGA effort to undermine government institutions that undergirded the greatness they aspire to return to America.

Perhaps most dispiriting, about three-quarters of respondents told the AP that they believe immigrants "hurt the United States" (in its analysis, the AP did not discern between legal and illegal immigration). So much for the Statue of Liberty. Instead, Trump is channeling fascist rhetoric about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of our country — an abhorrent idea agreed to by 72% of Republicans when the thought is unattributed but 82% "if the language is attributed to Trump," according to a CBS poll. (This poll specifically asked about illegal immigration.)

In his acceptance speech, the former president amplified the anti-immigrant rhetoric, describing many migrants as "coming from prisons and jails. They're coming from all over. They're coming from countries that most people have never heard of. And they're coming from mental institutions and insane asylums, they're being emptied out into our country. And the terrorists, many terrorists are coming in, you know."

Surely, there are bad actors among the throngs at the southern border, and surely Biden's failure to secure the border jeopardizes the country (and his re-election bid). But most are like previous generations of immigrants looking to escape untenable situations. To demonize them with disgraceful language belies the religious faith Trump claims to represent.

Even though most political observers predict that Trump will soon run the table on the remaining Republican primaries and caucuses and reclaim the nomination, there's still time and still hope that voters vexed by the allegations and chaos surrounding him will unite around an alternative. Iowa is one state, and while the 110,000 caucusgoers deserve credit for toughing out snow and cold, the turnout was way down from the 187,000 who took part in 2016.

Forty-nine other states, and millions of voters, haven't had their say. We urge those who value truth and a more hopeful view of America's future to stay engaged.