Claims Ted Cruz “stole” the Iowa caucuses and demands a new election

Two days after finishing second in the Iowa caucuses, Trump lashed out at winner Ted Cruz on Twitter and in interviews, falsely accusing him of “stealing” Iowa by committing voter fraud and calling for the results to be thrown out or a new election to be held. He pushed the claim via anonymous-attribution framing — including tweeting that "Many people voted for Cruz over Carson because of this Cruz fraud" — while citing Cruz allies’ misleading suggestions that Ben Carson was suspending his campaign. Trump also claimed, without evidence, that “hundreds of thousands” of votes were “illegally” shifted and that he had actually won, priming his supporters to view normal campaign hardball as criminal theft whenever he does not come out on top.

"He didn’t win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why I came in second. Also, he illegally stole it." — Feb. 3, 2016 tweets and follow-up comments in which Trump alleged, without evidence, that Ted Cruz committed fraud in the Iowa Republican caucuses and called for the results to be nullified or rerun