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Former U.S. President Donald Trump is celebrating: With more than 50 percent of the vote, the 77-year-old clearly won the first vote for the Republican presidential candidacy in Iowa on Monday. He had unusually mild words for the defeated candidates.
René Pfister, DER SPIEGEL: "He presented himself as a very, very moderate candidate, very reserved. He said that it was now necessary to unite the country. He has even praised Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. And all of this has sent a clear message: I am the one who dominates the Republican Party. Everyone else has to submit to me. We fought a fair battle, but it's already over. I'm the one who's going to challenge Joe Biden, the president."
It will now be difficult for competitors Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to make up ground against Trump. Both are about the same and will have to continue to try to beat each other out of the field first. But how did Trump's clear victory in Iowa come about? This is probably due to two surprising findings.
René Pfister, DER SPIEGEL: "The first is that Trump not only did well among workers and farmers, but that he also came out on top among voters who have a college degree. And this is a new development, that Donald Trump appeals to Republican voters across all levels of education. And the second interesting thing was revealed by a post-election poll by the television channel CNN: that a whopping two-thirds of Republican supporters believe that Donald Trump's election victory was stolen. That Joe Biden is not a legitimate president."
So is everything already decided for the Republicans in the race for the presidential nomination? Challenger Nikki Haley is hoping that she might still be able to win against Trump in the upcoming primaries in New Hampshire.
René Pfister, DER SPIEGEL: "Even if there were to be this surprise victory, it is still very, very unlikely that it will prevail against Trump in the long run. That she will be the candidate at the convention in July because all national polls show that Donald Trump is the absolutely dominant figure in the Republican Party, because 60 percent of Republican supporters are behind him. And it's just very, very hard to imagine at the moment how that lead is going to melt away again."