Opinion | 8 Iowa Caucus Voters Discuss Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis

We’re days away from the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, and contrary to the usual sense of anticipation, voters there aren’t expecting any surprises — and they’re a little frustrated about it. “It seems like there’s a front-runner that can’t be beat,” said Caleb, a 27-year-old who joined a recent Times Opinion focus group of Iowa voters who plan to attend the G.O.P. caucuses on Monday night.

The front-runner, of course, is Donald Trump, who has a roughly 30-point lead in Iowa polls and an even bigger lead in some national polls. We wanted to use this month’s focus group as an opportunity to hear what Republican voters in Iowa are thinking about him, the race and the country in general.

“I guess I would pray and hope that Trump could be more like the old Trump than this Trump,” said Nancy, a 69-year-old retiree. The distinction she made between the “old Trump” and the “new Trump” zeroes in on a complaint about him we heard throughout our conversation: Many voters on the right support what he stands for and like much of what he did as president, but they’re growing tired of his increasing focus since Jan. 6, 2021, on complaining about being unfairly treated. “I feel like right now all I’m hearing is just everything that’s going against him. It’s just all the legal troubles. I really haven’t heard much about what he’s planning to do,” said Brittney, a 38-year-old writer.

Still, some of our participants felt that the many criminal charges brought against Mr. Trump only made them more sympathetic toward him. “I don’t think it hurts his ability to win the nomination at all. I’d say it just strengthens him,” said Hugh, 57. We asked the eight participants if a conviction would stop them from voting for the former president, and four said it would.

If Mr. Trump came in for criticism, there were also some tough words for his primary rivals, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who have campaigned across Iowa for months. Some focus group participants liked Ms. Haley’s presentation and experience with foreign policy but were critical of her domestic agenda (or, they felt, a lack thereof). Several liked Mr. DeSantis’s policies but weren’t fans of the man himself. The participants were not supporters of President Biden by any means, but only half of them said they were confident the eventual Republican nominee would win the White House in November.