Donald Trump admitted Wednesday that he "could have used a better ground game" in Iowa, but at the same time, he's happy with his second place finish, even if he doesn't understand why rival candidate Marco Rubio's third-place win is being considered a great victory.
"How come if he came in third place and I came in substantially better at second place, why isn't mine one of the great victories in the history of politics?" Trump told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "I said that's wonderful, I don't understand that. But I came in second place. I was satisfied. I think probably it's a place I could have won if I really went there and did a little more work there."
Trump, though, said that as a newcomer to politics, he was "never familiar" with how Iowa's complicated caucus system works.
"You never know what will happen with the caucus," he said. "You think everything is fine and it's not like you walk in and vote and walk out. You're in and out in ten minutes or two minutes...I'm a rookie learning fast and I do learn fast and I think we did very well."
Further, Trump pointed out that there were many more experienced politicians, including governors and senators who would have loved to have had his second-place finish, and the response is already positive toward him in New Hampshire.
But Trump said he was told that he would not do well in Iowa, but he believed he'd do well.
"I started in 10th place and went there, I came in, I ended up in second place," said Trump.
However, Trump said, he was not familiar with the term "ground game," and he would have funded more efforts on the ground, "but people told me my ground game was fine and by most standards it was. Don't forget, in the history of Iowa I got the most votes other than one person, Ted."
And Rubio came in more than 2,000 votes away, he pointed out, and "that's a lot of votes."
Trump does think it was a plus for Sarah Palin to endorse him, and he does not regret dropping out of the last debate before the caucuses, as he was able to bring in $6 million through his own event to benefit veterans. But, he told ABC News' Cokie Roberts, who was on the morning panel, that he will be at Saturday night's ABC presidential debate.
"I've done well in the debates, I've won a lot of the debates," said Trump. "Some people said I've won all the debates. According to the polling I won all the debates. What did I know about debating? That wasn't what I did for a living."
Trump also said he still trusts polls after Iowa, even though they don't work well for a caucus.
"I trust polling for other things, especially when you do cumulative polling where you take many polls, put them together," said Trump. "Sometimes I wonder how that can work where they take 300 people and do a poll of the United States and it comes out accurately."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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