DES MOINES: Donald Trump suffered his first electoral defeat after a surge of voters turned out in the Iowa caucus to back the candidate he had said "nobody liked".
A record number of Iowans cast their votes in the first popular test of the presidential race, selecting Ted Cruz, the evangelical Texas senator, to be champion for the Republican Party's "conservative grassroots".
"America needs new leadership," Mr Cruz told The Daily Telegraph. "It is a victory for the grassroots."
With his pitchfork populism energising a disaffected electorate, Mr Trump had confidently told his supporters he was going to win so much that they would be "sick of winning".
However, Iowa delivered victory to Mr Cruz, and in an even greater humiliation, Mr Trump finished barely ahead of Marco Rubio, the candidate of the party establishment who had been
behind in the polls.
Mr Trump sulked about the result yesterday: "I don't believe I have been given any credit by the voters for self-funding my campaign, the only one," he wrote on his Twitter page. "I will keep doing, but not worth it!"
"Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there - a fraction of Cruz & Rubio. Came in a strong second."
At the Trump post-caucus party, where supporters had gathered to watch the results come in, the atmosphere was anything but festive. The businessman's concession speech was perhaps the shortest public appearance of his long career.
After quickly congratulating his opponents, Mr Trump moved on to detail the strength of his support in New Hampshire, the setting for the next primary race. There were moments that were classic Trump - "Iowa, we love you. You're very special," he told the crowd. "I think I might come back here and buy a farm"- but behind the fixed smile he had a deflated air. Mr Trump's family, too, could barely conceal their disappointment. As they stepped away from the podium at the Sheraton hotel in Des Moines, the faces of Eric and Don Jr, Mr Trump's sons, fell, and darkened even further as the televisions around them blasted out the phrase "this is Ted Cruz's night".
At his victory rally in a cavernous hall at the Iowa State Fairground, a jubilant Mr Cruz told the crowds: "God bless the great state of Iowa. The great people of Iowa have spoken." Looking to the sky, he said "to God be the Glory" and went on to quote the Bible and invoke the spirit of Margaret Thatcher.
Mr Trump later appeared in New Hampshire, where he will face his next electoral test in a little over a week. He is the clear favourite in the state, polling 22 points ahead of Mr Cruz.
But after the polls he so likes to cite at his rallies let him down in Iowa, many are now questioning the depth of that support.
Mr Trump has worked hard to erode support from Mr Cruz, dismissing him at a recent debate with the soundbite: "Nobody likes you Ted."
The son of a preacher, and a hardline religious conservative, Mr Cruz had long held the support of Iowa's powerful evangelical voting bloc. Mr Trump, who is three times married and has a relatively socially liberal record, sought to steal that support by finding God. He went to church, started carrying a bible and even enlisted the help of Jerry Falwell, the president of Liberty University, an evangelical institution that teaches against evolution.
Americans who had long since decided to ignore politics have boosted Mr Trump's national polls, in which he is the Republican frontrunner.
An increased turnout, pollsters said, should have been benefited Mr Trump. A record 185,000 people turned out to vote, the largest in Iowa's Republican caucus history, according to Edison Research. But this show of force, with a turnout that included 46 per cent who had never previously engaged in American politics, failed to yield the expected result.