--- title: Trump's not so sure voters want the revenge he's promised description: Iowa will be the first test of Republican voter appetite for a pay-back presidency. canonical: https://time.com/6555431/trump-promised-retribution-voters-may-not-want-it/ copyright: © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. terms: https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/ license_contact: syndication@time.com author: Eric Cortellessa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-01-15T12:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:29:56.026Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's not so sure voters want the revenge he's promised og:description: Iowa will be the first test of Republican voter appetite for a pay-back presidency. og:url: https://time.com/6555431/trump-promised-retribution-voters-may-not-want-it/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59b4d32c09c4cc54/698a43dbdb29877468269b6f/GettyImages-1933040466-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Presidential Campaign Event In Indianola, Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's not so sure voters want the revenge he's promised twitter:description: Iowa will be the first test of Republican voter appetite for a pay-back presidency. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59b4d32c09c4cc54/698a43dbdb29877468269b6f/GettyImages-1933040466-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Promised Retribution. He’s Not So Sure That’s What Iowa Voters Want. > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=60a283b6-9f15-4672-af4c-57aff5249293&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump Dominates in Iowa [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Dominates in Iowa](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Olr6M9nx.m3u8) (3:56)  _Published 2024-01-16. Donald Trump was the runaway winner of the first contest in the 2024 GOP primary, notching the biggest victory ever in the contested Iowa caucuses._  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Jan 15, 2024 12:00 PM UTC Donald Trump was the runaway winner of the first contest in the 2024 GOP primary, notching the biggest victory ever in the contested Iowa caucuses.  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Jan 15, 2024 12:00 PM UTC At the beginning of his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump promised to avenge his enemies during a second term, [telling](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5060238/pres-trump-i-justicei-retribution) a gathering of conservative activists: “I am your retribution.” But in the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses, the former President now says he might be a little too busy for vendettas. “We’re going to make this country so successful again,” he told a Fox News Town Hall in Des Moines. “I’m not going to have time for retribution.” The reversal reveals a core tension for the former President’s bid to reclaim the White House. On the one hand, vengeance has been his most potent rallying cry. Trump’s criminal prosecutions have only galvanized the MAGA faithful and helped him become the far-and-away front runner for the Republican presidential nomination. With each indictment, he raised millions of dollars and steamed further ahead in the polls. On the other hand, his authoritarian pledge to punish political adversaries is what he needs to modulate if he is to attract moderate voters in swing states. No campaign is about a single strategy. And Trump’s will necessarily entail making two contradictory pitches at once. By crafting a campaign theme of comeuppance, he’s turned his legal woes into a political advantage, mobilizing his most committed followers. That’s sure to be central thread in his rhetoric over the coming year, when he’s likely to spend more time in a courtroom than on the campaign trail. But to win over average Americans who are worried he’ll transform the nation into an autocracy, he’s suggesting that he doesn’t quite mean what he says. “If you spend a lot of time on Rumble, you’re all about the retribution,” says David Kochel, a veteran of Iowa Republican campaigns who’s staying neutral, referring to the right-wing streaming service. “But that’s not most voters.” Trump will test that split strategy Monday night in Iowa, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley are dueling it out for second place and the chance to winnow the field to a two-person race. An NBC News-Des Moines _Register_ poll [released](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24360792-iowa-poll-trump-vote) Saturday has Trump with a nearly 30-point lead among likely Iowa caucus goers. Haley came in second, with 20% support, and DeSantis in third, with 16%. The two have each tried to draw a contrast between themselves and Trump by saying the former President is preoccupied with the past while they are looking toward the future. “I don’t have vengeance,” Haley said at the last debate. “I don’t have vendettas.” The outcome in Iowa will be the first concrete indicator of the Republican voter appetite for a pay-back presidency. The caucuses have historically attracted the most committed base voters. Because of the state’s demographic makeup—mostly white Evangelical Christians—and because the caucus process requires more of the voter than simply casting a ballot the traditional way, it’s a race decided by GOP activists and high propensity voters. “The Iowa caucuses are sticking a thermometer into the body politic, to check the temperature to see how warmly or coldly party activists view particular potential presidential nominees,” says Dennis Goldford, a Drake University politics professor. Trump’s opponents recognize the pull of Trump’s call for retribution, especially as he’s facing 91 felony indictments and the possibility of decades in prison. “I think they really feel government’s been weaponized against him,” says Bob Vander Plaats, the influential Iowa Evangelical leader who endorsed DeSantis. “If it's weaponized against him, they believe it will be weaponized against them.” The popular right-wing radio host Steve Deace says when callers complain about him backing DeSantis, they usually make the same point. They _want_ the populist rabble rouser, the fighter who will pulverize the Washington elites they feel have waged war on their way of life. “That’s why Trump wants to appear in all those courtrooms,” says Deace. “That’s his campaign: ‘They’re persecuting me because they hate you. I’m your conduit. I’m your way to get back at them.’ That’s his most powerful message.” Some Trump supporters want him to get even with enemies—but it depends on the target. “I want him to take retribution on China, Ukraine, North Korea, and Iran,” says Garry Leffler, who was sporting a white “Trump Caucus Captain” hat at the Fox News Town Hall. “You’re doggone right I do.” But when asked if he wants Trump to punish his domestic foes, the 62-year-old from West Des Moines demurred. “A lot of things get said in the heat of the campaign,” he says. Others aren’t taking Trump’s promise seriously. “I don't think he will,” says Mike Tullis, a 72-year-old retired grocer at a Trump faith event in Marion, Iowa. “He’s gonna be quite busy trying to get the country turned around.” Across the state, where Trump’s rivals are jostling to solidify their status as the only alternative, voters specifically cited revenge as a preposterous, even infantile, political goal. “Retribution? That’s not what the office is for,” says a red-faced Sanford Owens braving frigid temperatures outside a Haley event in Iowa City on Saturday. Owens, 62, lives in Portland, Oregon, but trekked to snowy Iowa to volunteer for Haley. “We’ve got to move forward. We’ve got to let that go. We can't be stuck mired in the past.” The competition between Trump and his rivals is, at its core, about whether the party wants to litigate the past or to turn the page to a new era in Republican politics. It’s a question that DeSantis’s supporters recognize may be answered soon. “If he doesn’t win here,” Deace says, “it’s because the people aren’t ready to move on.” For his part, Trump seems only marginally committed to moderating his tone. One day ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Trump rallied America First diehards through a rally in Indianola, Iowa. Outside, it was 12 degrees below zero. In an hour and forty minute speech, he resorted to the kind of incendiary rhetoric that has defined his political persona: vowing to close the borders on day one and enact the largest deportation program in American history. He called the U.S. Capitol a “rat-infested, graffiti-infested s—hole” and told his supporters to brave the weather Monday evening, which is expected to be the coldest night in Iowa caucus history. He didn’t give his enemies a pass. At one point, Trump took aim at the New York judge presiding over a $370 million civil fraud case against him. “I am going to that funeral,” Trump said, to rapturous applause. “This judge, whatever the hell he wants to do, let him do it. We’re going to that funeral.” _—with reporting by Mini Racker/Des Moines, Iowa_ ## Transcript Well, I want to thank everybody this has been some period of time and most importantly we want to thank the great people of Iowa. Thank you. We love you all what a turnout water crowd. I want to congratulate Ron and Nicki for having a good a good time together. We're all having a good time together. And I think they both actually did very well. I really do I think they both did very well. We don't even know what the outcome of second place is and I see Gary like congratulations Cowboys score. I spotted her have to announce because she's terrific still be a senator Grace Senator. I predict right going to be a great Center and I also want to congratulate the bank because he did a hell of a job. He came from zero and he's got a big percent probably 8% almost 8% and that's an amazing job. They all that. There are very smart. Very smart people very capable people and we're going to have to do Port that you would have to have a deportation level that we haven't seen in this country for a long time since Dwight Eisenhower actually. I don't want to be overly rough on the president. But I have to say that he is the worst president that we've had in the history of our country is destroying our country. And you know what my wife attended the funeral two months ago of Rosalynn Carter and it was beautiful and Jimmy Carter was there and I thought to myself Jimmy Carter's happy now because he will go down as being a brilliant president by comparison to Joe Biden. He'll be a brilliant presidents going to be he's going to be known as brilliant by comparison. So it's now off to New Hampshire a great place. We wanted last time and we wanted both times and we loved it the people agree. But you know, the truth is the people in our country a great they're all gray wheel of Iowa, but they're all gray. They only want to see one thing they want our country to come back. They're embarrassed by what's going on. Our country is left at all over the world is laughing at us and they want our country to come back. They want America, you know, they want us to be great again. It's a very simple Maga make America great again. And America First America First is a very important part of Riga. So we're going to put America First we're going to make America great again again, Iowa with love you you are good and you just go out and buy larger tractors and more land. Don't worry about it. And to all of the people standing behind me and all of the people in this room and so many great politicians and great dignitaries and friends. I just want to thank you all this a very special night. This is the first because the big night is going to be in November when we take back our country and truly we do make our country. Great again. Thank you very much. Everybody great honor. Thank you very much. Thank you. 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