Donald Trump speaks to voters during a visit to a caucus site at the Horizon Event Center on January 15, 2024 in Clive, Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa — Ron DeSantis went to all 99 counties. Vivek Ramaswamy held 300 events. Nikki Haley rode a tractor.

And in the end, none of it mattered. The Iowa caucus was called so quickly in Donald Trump’s favor on Monday night that his campaign watch party hadn’t even started yet and none of his supporters were there to see him win.

Neither the historic cold temperatures nor the 91 criminal charges against him could hamper Trump’s sprint to victory in Iowa, a state where he came in fourth in the 2016 Iowa caucuses but has won ever since. And on Monday, he won it with the largest margin in a competitive Republican caucus in Iowa history.

“Iowa, we love you,” Trump said when he came out on stage two hours later. “This is a very special night. This is the first. Because the big night is going to be in November.”

After days of trying to keep expectations for his margin of victory under control, the former president actually outperformed the polls. The gold standard Iowa survey had Trump at 48% of support two days before Caucus Day, and his campaign had telegraphed to the press that it was expecting to win by 20 percentage points.

“They said you’ll never get over 50. I mean, I just left and we were at 54,” Trump said. When all was said and done on Monday night, Trump had 51% of support and was approximately 30 percentage points ahead of second-place finisher Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to the three-quarters of caucus precincts that had reported results.

Although the doors hadn’t yet opened for his supporters when the race was called, there were at least 100 members of the press on hand to witness Trump’s victory in an otherwise empty room at the Iowa Events Center. Chatter rippled across the long banquet tables as reporters checked cell phones and email inboxes, seemingly surprised to learn the inevitable Iowa result had been declared at 7:30 p.m. local time.

The race was called so quickly in Trump’s favor that it prompted calls of “election interference” by the DeSantis campaign. In fact, Trump’s sweep in the Hawkeye State was perhaps the fastest Iowa caucus race call in modern political history. The result-to-be was so obvious that The Associated Press was apparently willing to violate its own policy by calling the race before voting had finished at some precincts.

“I just gotten in the car from our caucus, honestly. And I heard that. I didn't believe it,” said Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Trump endorser. “It sends a message that he's our nominee. We've never had a win this big in Iowa.”

Indeed, the former president and his allies were ready to wrap up the primary before Trump even gave his victory speech. Kari Lake, the Arizona Senate candidate and Trump acolyte, encouraged DeSantis to do some “soul searching” as she waited for Trump to come on the stage.

“I really hope that Gov. DeSantis and his beautiful family take some time to go back to Florida,” Lake said, despite the fact that DeSantis has not dropped out of the race.

But long shot candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, an "America First" evangelist who Trump had attacked over the weekend for being "sly" and "deceitful," took Lake's advice. He quit the race and endorsed Trump before 11 p.m.

Hours after Trump was declared the winner, the former president spoke before a crowd of supporters in signature white and gold TRUMP CAUCUS CAPTAIN baseball caps. They sipped on beer, wine and White Claw seltzer and milled about to the sounds of “Phantom of the Opera” and Elvis Presley in front of dozens of news cameras.

Trump, too, was surprised by the early race call. “I didn’t know they called it early,” he said from the stage before inviting a supporter dressed like a border wall to join him at the podium. As Trump spoke, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz turned over his shoulder to ask the press whether his primary opponents had dropped out yet.

Mary Thompson, a first-time caucus goer and Trump caucus captain in Ankeny, was unsurprised to see Trump declared the winner in a matter of minutes. She wore a bedazzled caucus hat with red, white and blue gems.

“It’s a given, I’ll tell you,” Thompson said. “People are turning around saying this is fake news. Fake everything. He hasn't been convicted of anything.”

As Trump was named the Iowa winner a half hour after caucusing began, his campaign playlist turned to Bastille’s "Pompeii" at a low volume in the mostly empty room.

The lyrics were fitting as Trump took his first step toward a 2020 election rematch against President Joe Biden: "If you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing changed at all? And if you close your eyes does it almost feel like you've been here before?”

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Overwhelming Iowa Win is a Little Underwhelming at Trump HQ