A day after finishing second in the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump concentrated his ire on the media for the coverage of his performance. Mr. Trump’s performance was underwhelming for most commentators while Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who finished third closely behind Mr. Trump, has gained a lot of positive media attention.
“So..the guy who came second is terrible. And the guy who came third is brilliant,” Mr. Trump said, opening a barrage of insults at the media. “These are the worst people ever.. the worst… the worst… the most dishonest. These media people. They say Trump humiliated, Rubio is the winner,” Mr. Trump said, pointing at the media enclosure at the back of the auditorium. Mr. Trump returned to the same theme repeatedly and the crowd of around three thousand turned around towards the reporters and booed.
New Hampshire primaries are scheduled for February 9 and opinion polls indicate a comfortable lead for Mr. Trump.
Sensing that Mr. Rubio’s rise can in fact challenge his run, Mr. Trump did not spare him. Mr Trump argued that for a professional politician like Mr. Rubio, coming third was no big deal. “And these people say it was a close third. There was a difference of more than 3000 votes. That is a large number,” Mr Trump said. “If I had focused only on Iowa, I would have come first,” Mr Trump said, explaining that he got involved in fund raising for veterans in between. “I skipped a debate and raised money for veterans. Many people advised me that I should not even go to Iowa, as I had no chance there. But I came second.”
Mr. Trump repeated all his characteristic litany of barbs and jibes at Muslims and Mexicans but the priority after media was his Republican opponents. According to calculations he explained, Jeb Bush spent USD 2884 for each vote he won in Iowa and Mr Rubio spent 300. “Who spent the lowest? The great Donald Trump,” he said. Mr Trump said if the Republican Party ended up nominating Ted Cruz who won Iowa, he would be disqualified from the presidential election on the grounds of his Canadian birth.
