Donald Trump: A journey beyond the worship of his rallies to understand his enduring appeal in US heartlands
It’s a week since Donald Trump stormed to victory in Iowa.
The polls predicted he would do well, but that didn’t make this first test of his re-electability any less remarkable.
The four-times indicted, twice impeached, election-denying, global agitator won in all but one of the state’s 99 counties.
It was unprecedented on many levels. He secured 51% of the vote, winning by a margin of 30 points.
For the former president’s many supporters, it represents the beginning of his second coming. His road back to the White House is clearer, they think.
But many in America and well beyond are baffled and alarmed. Why is a man so divisive, so polarising, so surrounded by chaos, so popular still?
As America’s media pundits packed up their glitzy pop-up Iowa studios and headed east back to their metropolitan bases, I headed west into the heart of the US.
I wanted to understand the enduring draw of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump at a rally before the New Hampshire presidential primary
Over the past few years, I’ve spent plenty of time at Mr Trump’s rallies.
They are more like rock concerts than political events and they are where you’ll find the diehards; the people who’ll seemingly do anything for Mr Trump.
They are the people for whom he is more than a political leader. He’s worshipped.
There is genuinely a strange gravity at the rallies. Conspiracies swirl. Truth and fiction blur. Reason is absent.
I wanted to get beyond that.
The people at the rallies represent his base of support but they alone didn’t win him the White House before and they won’t do it again.
He won the White House in 2016 by convincing a broader group that he was the answer.
In 2020, he failed to convince enough Americans that he deserved another four years, losing to Joe Biden.
But now he hopes Iowa is the indicator that he can turn it all around again this November.
Watch our new foreign affairs show, The World with Yalda Hakim, from Monday to Thursday between 9pm and 10pm on Sky News.
Donald Trump won comfortably in Iowa
Getting beyond the base
To the west of Iowa is Nebraska. It’s a conservative heartland. Farming is the main industry.
It’s the start of a journey to understand the broader and apparently enduring appeal of Mr Trump – beyond the rallies.
First stop is the small town of Prague and a meeting with farmer Mike Kubik.
His business is grain, his politics is conservative and his life is good.
“I’ve been here basically my whole life. Nebraska born and bred,” he tells me as we tour his snow-covered land on his all-American quad buggy.
“Life is excellent,” he adds. “I love my job – I’ve never had a bad day.”
Mike Kubik says it feels like the Biden government ‘doesn’t seem to care’
Mr Kubik’s experience is a reflection of Nebraska’s economy.
The midwestern state has among the nation’s largest gains in personal income, and unemployment is low.
He is happy with his son’s education at the local school. It’s the good life.
Economically his experience mirrors the national story, too. America is booming but it’s not trickling down; people aren’t feeling it.
“Our economy is going down,” Mr Kubik tells me from across his kitchen table.
“We’ve more than doubled our fuel costs. Our chemicals have gone up, our fertilizer has gone up, the cost of equipment has gone up. Food is terrible, and our government doesn’t seem to care.”
Mr Kubik’s story reflects the puzzle of American politics right now.
There is a disconnect between perception and reality in America.
Mr Kubik’s lot may be good, but it just felt better before. There is a lingering nostalgia compounded by stubborn inflation.
Read more:
How this year’s US election will shape the world
All you need to know about Trump’s legal cases
Trump hails ‘terrific’ DeSantis after rival ends campaign
Sky News launches new foreign affairs show
A sign promoting Donald Trump’s popular ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan in Nebraska
Nostalgia for Trump?
Mr Kubik adds: “Our government is not getting deals done, the export – our grain. It is hurting our bottom line, our prices are dropping.”
And then a view I will hear over and over on my journey ahead: “Trump put America first. There are some things that I didn’t agree with, but overall, he leads with leadership. He’s a businessman. He’ll get a deal done.”
As we talk, Mr Kubik conveys a multi-layered nervousness – about the economy, about the “woke” direction of the nation, and about global security – all of which seem far removed from his good Nebraskan life.
Mr Kubik points out that no wars began under Mr Trump.
President Biden is managing two and is exposing the limited worth of American leadership – with Israel-Gaza, Russia-Ukraine and China’s century-defining rise.
He presents an argument you hear over and over among supporters of the former president – that Russian President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t have dared invade Ukraine with Mr Trump in the White House – a point Mr Trump likes to run with, probably because it’s neatly unprovable.
“Donald Trump has power to say ‘don’t do it’. And the thing is, they believe that he’ll enforce it,” Mr Kubik says.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
From 16 Jan: ‘I’ll solve Ukraine and Israel situation’
Trump ‘not afraid’ of ‘chaos’
At one level or another, most here are in agriculture.
Deeper into Nebraska, my next conversation is with crop scientist Trey Stephens.
He helps the farmers to make a profit.
“I think now in these last four years, I haven’t felt a lot of attention to agriculture from this administration,” he tells me.
But quickly, Mr Stephens conveys that it’s about more than just business and the economy.
Trey Stephens says it always felt like Trump was ‘in control’
“It always felt like Trump was in control and, you know, right now, these last four years, it’s kind of like who is in control?” he asks.
“What about the chaos that seems to follow Trump?” I ask.
“Yeah. I think I mean, in order for change to happen, sometimes chaos ensues. And Trump is not afraid of that,” Mr Stephens says.
He returns to the same thought repeatedly in our conversation – that Mr Trump isn’t a politician. He was elected to shake things up and to return power to the American people.
And the divisiveness?
“I try to remove myself from a lot of the things he says and focus on the things that he does,” Mr Stephens adds. “If it was my wish, I would have a businessman that’s strong like Trump, but maybe he just doesn’t say as much.”
Mark Stone spoke to Trump supporters in snow-covered Nebraska
‘I miss the America I grew up in’
As the interstate cuts south, Nebraska becomes Kansas, but the politics doesn’t shift much.
The weekly auction in the town of Manhattan draws farmers and their cattle from across the state.
It’s an all-American scene – cowboys in their stetsons. Cliched? No. This is as real as it gets – a snapshot from the very middle of America.
Among the crowd, I meet rancher Jamie Grollmes.
She says: “When Trump was in office, it was a lot more steady. You didn’t see the highs and lows. It was a lot more consistent, you knew what to expect. With Mr Biden we’re on a rollercoaster in terms of our markets.”
Jamie Grollmes says things were more ‘steady’ under Trump
But what about Mr Trump the man, I ask. He’s pretty unique?
“He annoys me,” she replies. “I think he needs to learn to keep his mouth shut on some things. I think he’s very good on business, but I think he says some things he shouldn’t and sometimes I think he needs to keep his mouth shut.”
A few seats away is retired rancher Tom Massey. His baseball cap reflects his politics.
“I miss the America I grew up in,” it says.
Retired rancher Tom Massey is wearing a cap that echoes the feelings of many Americans
Who’s the answer, I ask. Who is going to make America better?
“Well, I think Trump will change things around if he gets back in, I really do,” he answers. “I think he’s going to get our border closed up, get things back to normal.
“I think he’s not a politician, I think he’s a businessman. When he came in the first time, he changed a lot.”
The man running the auction is something of a local celebrity. Andrew Sylvester is an award-winning auctioneer.
We sit for a coffee in the auction hall cafe where he reflects on two Americas, far apart.
He says: “We live here in the middle of the United States. I think that people on both the east and west coast, where there’s high populations, I think they probably forget where their food comes from.
“To them, their food comes from the grocery store, when in fact, we grow it right here in what they call flyover states.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Can Trump rival Nikki Haley take New Hampshire?
Like others, he sees flaws in Mr Trump. And he’s baffled at America’s inability to find fresh candidates.
“I don’t know why the Democrats and Republicans can’t come up with younger candidates or candidates that don’t have any baggage,” he says.
“Biden’s side obviously has baggage. And Donald Trump seems to be in and out of court and there’s issues there. But we’re going to vote with whoever the nominees are.”
“And for you, that means Trump’s the man if he’s the nominee?” I ask.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. I’ll vote for Donald Trump again.”
US
Minnesota manhunt continues for gunman who ‘posed as cop’ to kill Melissa Hortman and her husband
A manhunt is continuing after the gunning down of a Democrat politician and her husband – with police saying they’re acting on the assumption he is still alive and dangerous.
Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman were shot dead at home in a Minneapolis suburb on Saturday in what governor Tim Walz called a “politically motivated assassination”.
Democrat senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot multiple times at their home nine miles away, but survived.
A search is under way for Vance Boelter, 57, who authorities believe wore a mask as he posed as a police officer, and also used a vehicle resembling a squad car.
Several AK-style firearms and a list of about 70 names, which included politicians and abortion rights activists, were found inside.
Melissa Hortman and Senator John Hoffman. Pic: Facebook / Minnesota Legislature
Boelter was last caught on camera wearing a cowboy hat – a similar hat was found near another vehicle belonging to him on Sunday.
Authorities said at their latest news conference they assume he is still alive.
Hundreds of police officers are searching for Boelter, who escaped from the Hortmans’ house on foot after an exchange of gunfire.
Senator Hoffman was shot nine times and is having multiple surgeries, according to a text message shared on Instagram by fellow senator Amy Klobuchar on Sunday.
The text from Mr Hoffman’s wife, Yvette, added: “I took 8 and we are both incredibly lucky to be alive.”
She said her husband “is closer every hour to being out of the woods”.
“We believe [Boelter’s] somewhere in the vicinity and that they are going to find him,” Senator Klobuchar told NBC’s Meet the Press.
“Everyone’s on edge here,” she added, “because we know that this man will kill at a second.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Neighbours of killed US politician stunned
Police said they responded to gunfire reports at the Hoffmans’ Champlin home shortly after 2am on Saturday and found them with multiple gunshot wounds.
They then checked on the Hortmans’ home, in the nearby Brooklyn Park suburb, and saw what appeared to be a police car and a man dressed as an officer leaving the front door.
“The individual immediately fired upon the officers, who exchanged gunfire, and the suspect retreated back into the home” and escaped on foot, said Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley.
Read more:
Neighbours of murdered US politician stunned
Another vehicle belonging to Boelter was searched on Sunday in Minnesota’s Faxon Township. A cowboy hat similar to the one seen in the police appeal was found nearby.
It’s been revealed that the suspect texted friends around 6am on Saturday to say he had “made some choices” and was “going to be gone for a while”.
According to AP, which has seen the messages, he reportedly said: “May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way… I’m sorry for all the trouble this has caused.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Governor calls it ‘targeted political violence’
Records show Boelter – a father of five – is a former political appointee who served on the same state workforce development board as Mr Hoffman.
However, it’s unclear to what extent they knew each other, if at all.
Mr Hoffman, 60, was first elected in 2012 and runs a consulting firm called Hoffman Strategic Advisors.
The motive behind Melissa Hortman’s killing remains unclear. Pic: Instagram
Melissa Hortman, a 55-year-old mother of two, was first elected in 2004 and was the top house Democratic leader in the state legislature.
She also served as speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Mrs Hortman used her position to champion protections around abortion rights, including laws to cement Minnesota’s status as a safe refuge for people from restrictive states, who travel there for an abortion.
Her work also sought to introduce protections for services that provide abortions.
“Holy, holy, holy” they sang at the Church of St Timothy in Blaine, Minnesota.
But the congregation is struggling to comprehend an act of evil – the brutal murder of one of their own.
The church congregation remembered Melissa and Mark Hortman
Melissa Hortman grew up here. The former state speaker and her husband Mark were shot dead in their home on Saturday morning.
Her friend and party colleague, Erin Koegal, was among those attending mass.
Erin Koegal says her friend’s death feels like a ‘bad dream’
“It still feels like a bad dream. I woke up this morning and was like, okay, so that was real,” she said.
“It’s hit me in waves, the grief, and the anger, and the sadness. She was a leader, a true definition of a leader.
“I’ve never known our party without Melissa as the leader and so I can’t, I don’t even know how we’re going to go forward as a caucus without her.”
The bullet holes on Melissa Hortman’s front door.
State senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette had already been shot and wounded.
Police sent to check on his colleague, Melissa Hortman, didn’t get there in time.
Police are extensively searching for 57-year-old Vance Boelter
They named the suspect as Vance Boelter, a 57-year-old former Christian missionary.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called it a “politically motivated murder”.
Read more here:
Neighbours of murdered US politician stunned
Manhunt after Minnesota politician and husband shot dead
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Neighbours of killed US politician stunned
Friends of Ms Hortman have told Sky News that her two children feared for their mother’s life after reading divisive rhetoric directed at her online.
Matt Norris, another political colleague of Ms Hortman, was also at church, reflecting on the rise of political violence in America.
Matt Norris
“We’ve going to have to do some serious introspection as a state, as a country, and figure out how do we get beyond this,” he said.
“How have we been laying the seeds that have led to horrific acts of violence against public servants like this?
“And it’s going to be incumbent upon us as leaders to set a different tone, to set a different direction for our state and our country so that horrific tragedies like this never occur again.”
Tributes left for Melissa Hortman and her husband outside the Minnesota State Capitol
But there’s no sign of division at the State Capitol Building, where flags fly at half-mast and flowers are being left in tribute.
This is a community united in grief and in its hope for an end to gun violence in America.
Reading between the lines of President Trump’s social media posts is an art, not a science.
But whether by intention or not, there is always insight in his posts. His Truth Social words reacting to the Israeli attack on Iran are intentionally ambiguous.
When was he told by Israel that they would strike Iran? Did he give them a green light, or was it more amber?
Israel-Iran live: Missile from Iran and Yemen ‘hitting Israel’
Was his insistence, as recently as 48 hours ago, that a strike would “blow” the chances of a deal with Iran actually just a ruse to afford Israel the element of surprise? That’s what the Israelis are claiming.
Mr Trump said he ‘gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal’. Pic: Reuters
Clearly, President Trump does not want to give the impression that his ‘don’t strike’ advice was ignored by Netanyahu.
His social posts are filled with enough ambiguity to allow him to maintain his good cop stance alongside Netanyahu, the bad cop: “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it’…”
Trump’s ‘art of the deal’, whether it be in real estate or nuclear weapon negotiations, requires unpredictability and ambiguity.
Both of those, as it happens, are useful to hide ineptitude too. The line between diplomatic masterstroke and disastrous diplomacy is thin.
The president is claiming that the Israeli attacks make a deal more, not less, likely because of the pressure Iran will now be under.
Maybe, but many regional watchers are very unconvinced.
👉Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim on your podcast app👈
An alternative path to negotiations for Iran would be to go fully down the North Korea route, comforted in the knowledge that China – as a big Iranian oil customer – and Russia – as a weapons customer – will be on side.
Trump may think that the pressure of bombardment will force Iran to heel. But the other pressure the Iranian supreme leader is under is the pressure of survival.
Self-preservation necessitates the Iranian response that we’re now seeing before any prospect of renewed negotiations can come.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Iran attacks analysed
The Israelis and the Americans are calculating that Iran and its proxies are now sufficiently degraded, and so the response will be limp and containable.
They might be right in terms of conventional attacks, but asymmetrical operations are another fear – against Israeli targets or more broadly, softer Western targets in the region or beyond.
Step back from the chaos of the past 24 hours. The broader picture here is regime change.
Netanyahu said as much in his Friday speech, calling for an internal uprising. He ignored history – which suggests people tend to rally round their flag – but more than that, that foreign air strikes alone don’t work.
Look at Libya in 1986, Iraq in 1991, or Yugoslavia in 1999.
Read more:
Nuclear threat wasn’t only reason Israel attacked Iran
How the attacks could impact global economy
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Netanyahu wants to go further. Will he take out the supreme leader? Trump does not want another full-scale conflict in the Middle East. Of all the things he is accused of being, a hawkish warmonger he is not.
But there are plenty of politicians on Capitol Hill – on both sides of the divide – who support regime change in Iran.
I was at an event in Congress in December organised by Iranian exiled opposition leaders. I was struck by the cross-party support for regime change in one form or another.
Israel this weekend announced that its military had achieved total air superiority from western Iran to the capital Tehran. That’s remarkable.
Could Trump be persuaded to pursue regime change? Peace, eventually, through strength? His motto adapted.
We are at yet another unsettlingly tense moment for the region.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut