Returning to Iowa in a bid to solidify his lead in the Republican presidential primary’s first state, former President Donald Trump did not propose any new policies or say anything he hasn’t said before.

Instead he returned to his favorite tropes, demonizing and dehumanizing targets like migrants and trangender people, promising his supporters he was the only man who could preserve their freedoms and protect them from World War III, garnering cheers from right-wing Iowans across two speeches on Wednesday.

What You Need To Know

  • Returning to Iowa in a bid to solidify his lead in the Republican presidential primary’s first state, former President Donald Trump revisited his favorite tropes, including demonizing and dehumanizing targets like migrants and trangender people
  • It was a reminder that the four-time indicted former president casts a Boeing 757-sized shadow over the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination
  • The supposed dangers of migrants entering the country is a tool Trump has used since he descended down a gilded escalator in his Manhattan skyscraper in 2015 to announce his first presidential bid
  • Nearly a decade later, as his third campaign for the White House dominates his Republican rivals, Trump continues to use similar rhetoric to whip up his supporters and capitalize on their grievances for his political gain, speaking of an “invasion” of millions of migrants

“Lawless mobs of unscreened unvetted illegal alien migrants are stampeding across our border by the millions and millions, including hordes of criminals, terrorists, human traffickers, child smugglers, gang members and inmates emptied out of their prisons and insane asylums and mental institutions,” Trump said during his second speech in Dubuque, Iowa, near the state’s border with Illinois and Wisconsin. “And that sounds bad, but it's actually worse than that. This is an invasion and I'm one candidate who from day one knows exactly how to stop it.”

The supposed dangers of migrants entering the country is a tool Trump has used since he descended down a gilded escalator in his Manhattan skyscraper in 2015 to announce his first presidential bid. Nearly a decade later, as his third campaign for the White House dominates his Republican rivals, Trump continues to use similar rhetoric to whip up his supporters and capitalize on their grievances for his political gain, speaking of an “invasion” of millions of migrants.

He promised mass deportations, a Navy blockade and to bring thousands of troops stationed abroad back to the U.S. to guard the border and to bring migration to heel. He said he would bring back his ban on Muslims traveling to the U.S. and swore to purge his political enemies from the federal government.

Trump also spouted falsehoods about transgender Americans as he pledged to restrict their freedoms, their access to medical care and their ability to serve their country in uniform, as he did the first time he was president. He compared gender-affirming surgeries, an extremely rare procedure for teenagers, to genital mutilation and child sex abuse. 

He accused Democrats of supporting so-called “post-birth” abortions, a phenomenon that does not exist and would qualify as infanticide in every jurisdiction in the country. 

The debate over abortion policy has been at the top of mind in the 2024 Republican primary. This weekend, Trump called a ban on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy implemented by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of his rivals, a “terrible mistake.” Another primary contender, Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, has called for a national abortion ban. Both men have criticized Trump for not going far enough in their eyes.

Countering those criticisms, Trump has taken credit for appointing three Supreme Court justices that ultimately voted to send the question of abortion back to the states, leading to bans across the country. But he has argued Republicans should hold back enough to avoid alienating more moderate voters.

“Like Ronald Reagan before me. I believe in the three exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. I believe in that,”  Trump said on Wednesday in Dubuque, drawing applause in a state where evangelical conservatives wield tremendous influence. “Without the exceptions, it is very difficult to win elections. We would probably lose the majorities in 2024 without the exceptions and perhaps the presidency itself.”

“In order to win in 2024. Republicans must learn how to properly talk about abortion,” he added.

Ultimately, the nuances of Trump’s abortion position may not matter much. The Iowa caucuses are just four months away. Recent polls in the state have him holding a more than thirty point lead over DeSantis, his closest competitor. In New Hampshire, the next state in the primary, Trump led by 26 percentage points in a poll released Wednesday. 

And nationally, Trump holds a more than 40 percentage point on average lead among Republican primary voters, according to the polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight. 

These days, his public remarks infrequently tread into new territory. But his comments have appeared to work so far, at least among the Republican primary electorate.

When he spoke of halting an “invasion” of “hordes” of migrants on Wednesday in Dubuque, the crowd cheered.

And then, after two and a half hours of speeches on a single Wednesday afternoon — the first in Maquoketa, Iowa, and the second 30 minutes north in Dubuque — he returned to another favorite trope of his: As Trump departed the stage, he stopped and hugged the American flag.