For the first time, GOP front-runner Donald Trump is admitting he may lose Iowa.
"Unless I win, I would consider this a big, fat, beautiful—and, by the way, a very expensive—waste of time," Trump said this weekend, speaking to supporters during a whirlwind tour of Iowa.
Trump also seemed to acknowledge that a loss in Iowa could unravel his campaign.
"If I don't win, maybe bad things happen," he said.
Trump has lagged in Iowa compared to national polls. At times he appears clumsy in his outreach, asking at one rally "how stupid" the voters of Iowa could be.
"I'm thinking about buying a farm. Is your farm for sale?" the billionaire Manhattan real estate develop said, trying to find some common ground.
Trump has also been at unease with the state's evangelical voters, declaring at one rally, "I'm an evangelical."
His critics have noted his long-time support for abortion rights, including partial-birth abortion.
His most audacious move was missing Iowa's recent Republican debate, hosted by Fox News.
"They weren't treating me right," Trump said, noting the debate got lower than usual ratings.
But the last leading GOP candidate to skip an Iowa debate was Ronald Reagan, who lost the caucus in 1980.
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