The Iowa campaign trail has long been littered with mainstays, like Pizza Ranch and the Machine Shed BBQ restaurant, but Donald Trump aims to add a new stop on Tuesday nearly 900 miles from Des Moines: A courtroom in Washington, D.C.
His campaign and allies see this detour from the Hawkeye State days before the caucuses as a boost, not a detriment, to his bid to return to the White House.
“I think the Democrats intended to hurt him by tying him down in a courtroom, but it’s backfiring on them spectacularly,” said Mike Davis, an outside legal and political adviser who is in frequent contact with Trump and his campaign. “They’re turning Donald Trump into Nelson Mandela.”
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Davis, a native of Des Moines, argues that Trump’s pre-politics celebrity and that he’s effectively an incumbent inoculates him from some of the typical demands of the Iowa electorate.
“Iowans are going to expect Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley to come into their living rooms to ask for their vote. They’re not going to ask that of Donald Trump,” Davis said. “They’ve known him for 40-plus years.”
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