(Radio Iowa UPDATED) – Former President Donald Trump is meeting with smaller groups of Iowans (today) rather than hosting a big outdoor rally. Trump told a crowd in a suburban Des Moines restaurant there’s no way he’ll lose Iowa in 2024. “We’d have to do some really bad things to lose at this point…It’s the best polls we’ve ever had,” Trump says. “Overall, nationwide, in Iowa — no matter where I go it’s the best polls because they love the four years that we had.”

Trump’s visit comes a day after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Iowa crowds he’d be a disciplined, energetic president for the next eight years. “I’ve been watching (DeSantis) go out and say: ‘I’ve got eight years. It’s going to be 8 years!’ Let me tell you something, right there you should vote against him,” Trump said. “It’ll be take me six months to have it totally the way it was. We’ll have it fast.”

Allan Richards of Des Moines was among the first to arrive for Trump’s first stop. Richards says this is the type of campaigning Trump should have done heading into the 2016 Caucuses. “I wrote an editorial that was published where I told Trump he was fired because I did not appreciate the way that he campaigned in the Iowa Caucus and I think it was a mistake on his part, you know, as far as it comes to Iowa,” he says. “I think he made up for it later on in his campaign and in his presidency.” Richards says it appears Trump has evolved and Richards plans to Caucus for Trump in 2024.

“I would always support a former leader before anybody else,” Richards says. “I think the power of the presidency and the importance of it — once we put a person in there, I think that we have to stand behind them because of their experience, knowledge and things they know that the average person wouldn’t know, even a congressman wouldn’t know.”

David Oman was in the room as Trump addressed the Westside Conservative Club and other Trump supporters who crowded into a meeting room at the Machine Shed restaurant.  “There was a lot of energy in the room,” Oman says. “He entered with support and I think he left with the same if not more support, people excited about the encore campaign that he has begun and their ability to be a part of it again.” Jon McAvoy, a former Adel City Councilman, says the place was packed and it was a Trump crowd.

“I thought his presentation was maybe a little different than I expected…spent a lot of time talking about his accomplishments as president and how he wanted to do it again,” McAvoy says. “…I went in there just wanting to just listen and I was pretty much impressed, to be honest with you. He kept a low, even keel. Didn’t fly off at anything and that made me more comfortable with him.”

Trump met next with a group of pastors at a Des Moines church. Late this (Thursday) afternoon he’s taping an interview with Sean Hannity that will air tonight (Thursday) on the Fox News Channel.