Former President Donald Trump held a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday night, ostensibly to support Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) re-election bid. But Iowa is also traditionally the first state in the nation to pick between presidential primary candidates, and Trump once more tiptoed up to line of announcing his 2024 candidacy.
"The election was rigged and stolen — I ran twice, I won twice," Trump said, falsely, to the crowd of about 5,500 rally-goers. "Now, in order to make our country successful and safe and glorious, I'll very, very, very probably do it again." He repeated, "Very, very, very," then said, "Get ready, that's all I'm telling you."
Trump advisers have spent much of the past year urging him to wait until after the 2022 midterms to announce his candidacy, though "in many ways, he is already acting like a 2024 candidate," The Washington Post reports. He has already begun picking people he wants to work on his campaign and considering venues to launch his comeback bid, the Post adds. Trump narrowly lost the Iowa caucus to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2016, and a recent Des Moines Register poll found most Iowans view Trump unfavorably, with even some Trump supporters admitting they have doubts about voting for him a third time.
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