Why DeSantis says Trump's romp in Iowa is actually a sign of his weakness

For Donald J. Trump's campaign, his victory in the Iowa caucuses by a record 30-point margin was a sign that he would coast to the nomination. As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told it, the outcome was actually a sign of the former president's weakness.

DeSantis on Friday began offering a public version of private comments he has made: that Trump's inability to get much more than about 50 percent of the vote in caucuses with the lowest turnout in decades signals an inability to Energize the Republican base in a way that signals danger in a general election.

Speaking at a news conference outside the site of a planned debate that was canceled after Nikki Haley, a former United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump, said she would not participate without her former boss on stage, Mr. DeSantis said the Mr. Trump's performance in Iowa was a “warning signal for the party in November.”

“It's not like it was a weak showing to win the caucus,” Mr. DeSantis said. “The question is what that means for November and how the Republican base will or will not be energized.”

Turnout for the Iowa caucuses was about 110,000 voters. That's about half of what the campaigns once expected, and far below the 186,000 that came out in 2016. “Yes, it was cold,” Mr. DeSantis explained. “Yes, the conditions were not great.”

But still.

“The overall sign of danger is the low number of people who showed up,” he said.

Mr. DeSantis described Mr. Trump as essentially a sitting president and said he believed that Mr. Trump, as a former president, should have done better in Iowa — despite Mr. DeSantis' repeated predictions that he would win there.

“I feel like Reagan would have won 80 percent if he had been — if he had run for office again,” Mr. DeSantis said.

Mr. DeSantis, on the other hand, said Mr. Trump is losing the support he once had. “There's a class of Republicans who voted for him twice, and happily did so, who are checked out at this point, and it's not like he has any votes to spare,” he said.

Minutes earlier, Mr. DeSantis had complained in a Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto about how “the inevitable” was helping Mr. Trump — that voters, even his potential supporters, were starting to write off the contest. Mr. DeSantis said this as he predicted that Mr. Trump would march through New Hampshire with little resistance.

“Trump is going to run with it in New Hampshire — I think that's pretty clear at this point,” Mr. DeSantis said on Fox News, dismissing Ms. Haley's chances there and beyond.

Some of the several dozen reporters in the national press corps listened, huddled around an iPhone to stream the interview and waited for Mr. DeSantis to begin his outdoor press conference in New Hampshire, where temperatures had dropped into the 20s.

A hearty group of DeSantis fans, some without jackets, stood behind the prepared microphone stand. They bounced. They bulged. They shuddered. It had been about an hour.

“I knew it would be outside,” said one supporter. “I didn't know it would take this long.”

Mr. DeSantis arrived, dressed in a blue suit but without a jacket, and spoke at length about Mr. Trump's vote share and enthusiasm for the fall. He talked about his record in Florida. His answers were discursive and reporters tried to intervene. “Stop,” he said, raising his hand when a reporter tried to interrupt him by asking if he had some kind of insurance policy in case Trump faltered.

He declared that he didn't want to play expert – before he did exactly that.

“I am not a political forecaster,” he said in response to a question about which state would be the one where he would defeat Mr Trump. “Here's the deal. We saw Republican voters in Iowa: half wanted him, half didn't, roughly speaking. The turnout was terrible. There's terrible enthusiasm right now based on that result.”

“Now,” he asked, “I look forward to November, what does that look like for this party if he is the nominee?”

In a marker of Mr. DeSantis's heavy reliance on an outside group primarily to run his campaign, the press conference was organized by his super PAC, Never Back Down. Mr. DeSantis was a “special guest.”