Trump casts himself as best bet against Biden at Iowa event: ‘2024 election is our last shot to save America’

The former president shared a stage with his Republican rivals in Iowa where he projected himself as the party’s best shot to retake the White House

Trump, whose re-election bid comes at a time he was bracing for a fresh indictment, said ‘if I weren’t running, I would have nobody coming after me’

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Former US president Donald Trump takes a selfie with a supporter at the Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:28pm, 29 Jul 2023Updated: 2:31pm, 29 Jul 2023

Republican front runner Donald Trump cast himself as the party’s best shot to retake the White House even as he faces another criminal indictment.

“The 2024 election is our last shot to save America, and there’s only one candidate, and you know who that candidate is,” the former president said on Friday at the Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, a gathering of Republicans in early-voting Iowa that brought together much of the 2024 field, including his chief rival for the nomination Ron DeSantis.

Trump, the final speaker of the night, entered to a standing ovation, and in his speech listed the accomplishments from his term, including renegotiating a trade deal with Mexico and Canada and appointing three justices to the Supreme Court cementing a conservative majority that repealed Roe v. Wade.

Trump rattled off a series of polling numbers that showed him beating President Joe Biden and highlighted his wide lead in early-voting states.

“While DeSanctous is losing to Biden in all cases, I wouldn’t take a chance on that one,” Trump said, delivering a jab at his second-place challenger.

The dinner was the first time Trump and DeSantis were in the same venue in Iowa since the governor entered the race as a less polarising alternative to the former president.