Former President Donald Trump won a surprisingly brief and uneventful 2024 Iowa caucus, with entrance polling showing a commanding victory, declared by the Associated Press while caucuses were still underway.
Trump supporters immediately turned to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, gloating that the win meant DeSantis’ campaign was dead and done.
With over 54% of the votes, Trump was swiftly declared the winner of the caucuses Monday night. And his biggest fans barely had a moment to relish in the victory before turning it into calls for one of Trump’s biggest rivals to drop out.
“Please shut the fuck up and go away now!” conservative pundit Laura Loomer tweeted, tagging DeSantis, in the wake of Trump’s victory.
Others personified DeSantis’ loss via GIF: One X user tweeted that the DeSantis’ campaign headquarters is now a crumbling building. Another compared it to a GIF of a sinking ship.
Some suspected that DeSantis would pull the plug on his campaign in the hours after Trump’s victory.
“DeSantis campaign suspension, tonight?” an X user tweeted.
Or drove the knife in deeper by asking if Desantis campaigned in Iowa at all.
“Did DeSantis even campaign in Iowa?” an X user tweeted. “He just got shellacked!”
DeSantis spent months campaigning in the state and boasted that he was able to visit all 99 counties.
However, it seems unlikely DeSantis will immediately drop out. Votes in the caucus are still being tallied, and if he’s able to finish second, or keep pace with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, he will likely continue on through at least the next primary, in New Hampshire.
