Former President Donald J. Trump will return to Iowa on Friday for the first time this year, and will hold four campaign rallies in two days there as he looks to cement his dominant lead in the polls as the Iowa caucuses draw nearer.
Mr. Trump has visited the state infrequently, at least compared with his rivals in the Republican primary. His schedule this weekend is an unusually concentrated burst of campaigning for him that more closely resembles the way that other candidates have barnstormed the state.
But the former president has remained popular in Iowa. His events consistently draw hundreds, if not thousands, of supporters — dwarfing the attendance at more traditional meet-and-greets and voter town halls. In speeches over the last month, he and his allies have urged his supporters to caucus and have asked them to ensure their friends and neighbors help deliver a strong victory to Mr. Trump on caucus night.
Even as Mr. Trump turns his attention to Iowa, he continues to campaign as if he is already the Republican nominee. His speeches focus heavily on how he expects to roundly defeat President Biden in November, with only glancing attacks at his two closest, relatively speaking, rivals in the race, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor.
During Friday’s speeches, Mr. Trump is expected to attack Mr. Biden over his poor handling of the economy, according to an adviser who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans. Ahead of his events, his campaign released a new television advertisement attacking Mr. Biden along those lines. Mr. Trump has increasingly made such attacks central to his stump speech.
In a statement, the Trump campaign also accused Mr. Biden of refusing to talk about “his disastrous, failed” economic policies. Mr. Biden, meantime, is expected to give a speech on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, framing the upcoming election as a battle for democracy.
Mr. Biden and Democrats are expected to make Mr. Trump’s role related to that attack, for which he faces federal criminal charges, central to the 2024 campaign. The Trump campaign has recently sought to reframe the issue by accusing Mr. Biden of weaponizing law enforcement agencies to prosecute his political opponents
