Trump Campaign Calls on Republican Opponents to Drop Out

President Donald Trump and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R) speak during a meeting on United Nations Reform at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Sept. 18, 2017. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign and political action committee (PAC) MAGA Inc. called on his Republican presidential opponents to drop out of the race after he scored a major victory in Iowa’s caucuses on Monday.

The super PAC said in a statement that voters in Iowa sent a “clear message” about the presidential primary race and that it’s likely “Donald Trump will be the next Republican nominee for President. It’s now time to make him the next President of the United States.”

“Joe Biden’s team just announced a massive war chest. Every dollar spent by President Trump’s primary losers is a dollar that could be fighting Joe Biden.

“Once the DC RINOs are finished crying in their cocktails over tonight’s results, it’s time for Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy to face reality and stop wasting time and resources,” the statement read.

On Monday evening, Mr. Ramaswamy dropped out of the 2024 race and backed President Trump.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Newsmax that Mr. DeSantis and Ms. Haley are now “wasting their time” and “wasting money.”

“They’re wasting donors’ precious resources on a campaign that’s hardly making it out of Iowa and isn’t going to go anywhere after this,” she said, calling on the remaining candidates to depart the race and back the former president.

Braving frigid weather, voters in Iowa delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, with a margin of roughly 30 points. The win set a new record for contested Iowa Republican caucuses, surpassing Bob Dole’s nearly 13-percentage-point victory in 1988. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished a distant second, just ahead of former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

The GOP contest moves swiftly to New Hampshire, which will hold the first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 23. In a sign that she will not drop out soon, Ms. Haley has said she plans to compete vigorously in New Hampshire, where she hopes to be more successful with the state’s independent voters.

‘Absolutely Outrageous’

As for Mr. DeSantis, he said he plans on campaigning in another early primary state, South Carolina, over the coming days, suggesting that he won’t drop out soon. President Trump indicated he’s heading to New Hampshire next.

The Associated Press declared President Trump the winner at 7:31 p.m. CST, based on an analysis of early returns and the results from AP VoteCast. The survey included responses from more than 1,500 voters who indicated their plans to participate in the caucuses. Both showed Trump with an insurmountable lead.

But Mr. DeSantis criticized media outlets for declaring President Trump the winner of the Iowa caucuses, claiming their calls were made too early.

“It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote. The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet,” his statement read.

The Associated Press determined at 11:17 p.m. CST that Mr. DeSantis finished a distant second to the former president. With an estimated 10 percent of ballots remaining to be counted, the Florida governor led Ms. Haley by approximately 2,300 votes or about 2 percentage points.

With votes reported in all but one of Iowa’s 99 counties, Ms. Haley wasn’t doing well enough anywhere to catch Mr. DeSantis, based on the number of outstanding votes.

In recent decades, Iowa has been an uneven predictor of who will ultimately lead Republicans into the general election. Former President George W. Bush’s 2000 victory was the last time a Republican candidate won in Iowa and went on to become the party’s nominee.

Trump Calls for Unity

After winning in Iowa, President Trump called for Republicans to unify around him. “I really think this is time now for everybody, our country, to come together,” he said.

“Whether it’s Republican or Democrat or liberal or conservative, it would be so nice if we could come together and straighten out the world and straighten out the problems and straighten out all of the death and destruction that we’re witnessing. It’s practically never been like this,” he added.

In a possible preview of the general election, the former president added: “It’s just so important and I want to make that a big part of our message. We’re gonna come together, it’s gonna happen soon too. It’s gonna happen soon.”

That message was echoed, in part, by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a member of the House Republican leadership and a key Trump backer in Congress.

“Congratulations to President Donald Trump on his massive victory at the Iowa Caucuses!” she wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Thank you to the people of Iowa for your incredible support in delivering this historic win.”

Ms. Stefnanik, the Republican No. 3 in the House, then called on “every other candidate” to drop out of the race as they have “no chance to win.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.