Trump’s Iowa campaign ramps up its organizing after his infamously chaotic 2016 second-place effort

By THOMAS BEAUMONT
Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — By the time Donald Trump returns to Iowa, the Republican ex-president will have drawn more than 10,000 people to his events in the state in less than a month. But veterans of Iowa politics know crowds don’t always translate to caucuses. Unlike Trump’s seat-of-the-pants second-place campaign in 2016, he has a more sophisticated organization. Trump will pair a traditional speech Monday with a caucus organizing event at which he talks about how to participate Jan. 15. Trump’s campaign has collected pledge cards at its events and has a system in place to follow up. Trump’s advisers want to lock in support for a blowout victory that discourages talk of a second-place finisher challenging him.