POLITICS | REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

Excess in Iowa: 90°, a Butter Cow and Rides on Donald Trump’s Helicopter

By AMY CHOZICK and JASON HOROWITZAUG. 15, 2015

DES MOINES, Iowa — Hillary Rodham Clinton denounced Jeb Bush and discussed the rise of the Islamic State. Bernie Sanders held forth on Social Security. But at the Iowa State Fair, where a life-size butter cow rules and fairgoers devour stick-impaled delicacies, it is the candidacy of Donald J. Trump that perhaps best captures the air of raucous excess.

Mr. Trump arrived by helicopter, which touched down on the outskirts of the fairgrounds. His campaign later offered children rides as if the chopper were one of the fair’s amusement park attractions. Then, in his dark blue blazer, Mr. Trump strode through the fairgrounds, parting the crowd in his red “Make America Great” baseball hat, waving to the gathered masses along the way.

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The mob of news media and fairgoers following Mr. Trump drifted in a unified blob of camera phones, sweat and spilled beer, past the Ultimate Brisket Bomb booth toward the Agriculture Building where the butter cow rests.

As onlookers waited patiently in line for a chance to take a selfie with the butter cow, others crowded around Mr. Trump trying to get a glimpse of the real estate mogul-turned reality TV star and presidential candidate. (Mr. Trump, unable to move through the crowd, had to break his date with the butter-made bovine.)

Donald Trump arrived by helicopter at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on Saturday. His campaign later offered children rides on the chopper. CreditEric Thayer for The New York Times

Mr. Trump currently leads the crowded Republican field in state polls but based on the spectacle that surrounded him here on Saturday, it was hard to decipher whether people swarmed to see a celebrity or their next president.

The answer, it seemed, was a little of both.

Sue Harrington, 60, a factory worker in a “Trump for President” T-shirt — who also knows her butter-cow history (it dates back to 1911 and the same butter is used year after year) — explained why she was supporting Mr. Trump.

“He tells it like it is,” Ms. Harrington said. “A lot of politicians just lie.”

But others just wanted a glimpse at the man whose presence prompted an even more chaotic scene than the one that surrounded Mrs. Clinton earlier in the day.

“Pull the hat off! I want to see the comb over!” one man, holding a 27-ounce super chill beer in the 90-degree heat, yelled at Mr. Trump.

Meghan Gascoigne, 21, a student studying social work, said it was on her “bucket list” to meet Mr. Trump.

“I’d like to see him respect women,” she said. Her friend Cathleen Nelson said she was waiting to see him “definitely, because he’s a celebrity.”

Hillary Rodham Clinton visiting with a vendor on Saturday at the Iowa State Fair, where much of the food, including her pork chop, came on a stick. CreditEric Thayer for The New York Times

But whether Ms. Gascoigne, Ms. Nelson or any of the other hundreds of people here swarming around Mr. Trump — or any of the other candidates on display for that matter — will actually caucus for them in February is an open question.

The Iowa State Fair each year attracts more than one million visitors who descend on the fairgrounds for fried apple pie, carnival rides and concerts. It also attracts presidential candidates hoping to prove their abilities as retail politicians by talking to voters while partaking in corn dogs and deep-fried nachos.

Mrs. Clinton, who wore a blue gingham blouse, talked to reporters on Saturday alongside Tom Harkin, a popular former senator from the state who recently endorsed Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy. (Mrs. Clinton said she was “deeply honored” by Mr. Harkin’s support. He stayed neutral in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.)

A brown cow mooed behind Mrs. Clinton as she answered questions about the private email server she used as secretary of state and criticized Mr. Bush, who attended the fair on Friday, about his views on the Iraq war and the rise of the Islamic State. Then, she and a dozen Secret Service agents and staff members headed to get a pork chop on a stick.

All Linda Hopkins wanted was to get Mrs. Clinton to sign her copy of “Hard Choices,” Mrs. Clinton’s memoir of her time at the State Department. She persevered and eventually got past the pack of reporters and security.

Ms. Hopkins, 57, a factory worker, said she had driven 65 miles just to meet the former secretary of state. “I have seven granddaughters, and I hope she’ll make a difference for them,” she said.

But others seemed frustrated that they could not get close to the former first lady, who is trying to connect on an intimate level with Iowans who shunned her last presidential campaign. “I couldn’t hear a darn word she said,” one woman grumbled.

Soon after Mrs. Clinton left the fair for Martha’s Vineyard to attend the 80th birthday party of Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a close friend and confidant of the Clintons, Mr. Sanders arrived at the fairgrounds. Greeted by delirious supporters chanting, “Bernie, Bernie,” Mr. Sanders, who is challenging Mrs. Clinton from the left and attracting large crowds at his campaign events, entered the fair in his own sweaty envelope of reporters, cameramen and supporters, some of whom exchanged high fives after touching Mr. Sanders’s hand.

“This way,” Gwen Ifill, the public television news anchor, called to Mr. Sanders as she directed him to a picnic table for an interview. It was not what one might call an exclusive, as dozens of cameramen watched and recorded their interview, including when she asked if he was the left’s Donald Trump.

Mr. Sanders, who thinks of himself as the substantive diametrical opposite of the celebrity candidate, demurred. But he seemed to have a canned line ready for the occasion.

“I knew I forgot something,” Mr. Sanders said. “I left the helicopter at home.”