On the afternoon of January 6, the third anniversary of his supporters’ assault on the US Capitol, Donald Trump travelled to a school gymnasium on the banks of the Mississippi River to ask voters to send him back to the White House — and rattle the world like they did in 2016. 

“The battle begins in Iowa, it begins here,” Trump told the crowd assembled in Clinton, a town of nearly 25,000 on the eastern flank of the state. “With your help, we’re going to bring back our country — we’re going to bring it back from hell.” 

The Iowa caucuses — to be held on Monday night — will mark the Republican party’s first step towards picking its challenger to face Joe Biden, the 81-year-old Democratic president. Fewer than 200,000 voters out of America’s population of nearly 335mn are expected to brave the subfreezing temperatures to cast the first ballots of the 2024 presidential election cycle and set the tone for the race.