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Donald Trump romped to a landslide victory on Monday in Iowa's caucuses, the first vote in the US presidential race, cementing his status as the presumptive Republican standard-bearer to challenge President Joe Biden in November's election.

The former president led polling for more than a year, but the contest offered the clearest insight yet into his ability to convert that advantage into a stunning White House return.

Major US networks took just half an hour to call the race, with Trump taking 51% of the vote and opening an unprecedented 30-point gap over Ron DeSantis, the biggest victory for an Iowa challenger in modern history.


The Florida governor and Trump's other main rival, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, were locked at 21% and 19% respectively, with DeSantis projected to take the runner-up spot.

Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump celebrate at a watch party during the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 15, 2024. (Jim Watson, AFP)

There had been questions about whether Trump would be hamstrung by his legal problems, as he faces multiple civil and criminal trials this year.

Trump is expected to be back in court on Tuesday in New York for a civil case in which he has already been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll.

A jury, in May of last year, concluded that Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a New York department store in 1996. Tuesday's trial will address how much Trump should be forced to pay for separate remarks he made about Carroll in 2019, as president. She is seeking $10 million in damages.

But the extent of his victory demonstrated the 77-year-old's success in turning his prosecutions into a rallying cry that galvanized his followers as he takes his momentum into New Hampshire, the next state to nominate, next Tuesday.

Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP