Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump handily delivered two crushing defeats to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley over the past week, starting with the Iowa caucuses and wrapping up with the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday.
Haley has, nevertheless, decided to stay in the GOP primary race, despite her abysmally low poll numbers in the rest of the states. She is now the only notable Republican left to challenge Trump for the nomination in 2024 – and it’s a hollow challenge at that.
In a speech delivered after the race was called for Trump on Tuesday night, Haley gave cheery remarks that neither acknowledged her defeat nor signaled her intention to exit the race gracefully.
President Trump scorched Haley’s attitude and tone in his victory speech in Nashua, pointing out the obvious: “She failed BADLY.”
He called her an “imposter” and slammed her for attempting to claim a victory in a state that she lost. “…I don’t get too angry, I get even,” Trump said onstage, drawing applause from the crowd.
Despite Haley’s billionaire-donor-fueled campaign and an odious open primary system in the New Hampshire primary, Trump still sailed to victory in the Granite State on Tuesday, establishing a record-setting margin of victory.
According to an analysis from Interactive Polls, Trump effectively earned the “highest raw vote total of any New Hampshire Primary winner” in history, and he did this as a third-time candidate and non-incumbent.
On Truth Social, President Trump wrote, “SUCH AN HONOR: I JUST BROKE THE ALL-TIME RECORD FOR VOTES CAST – BOTH SIDES, DEMOCRAT AND REPUBLICAN – IN THE HISTORY OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY!”
The next primary domino to fall for President Trump is Nevada, where no GOP challengers at this point are even on the caucus ballot other than the president. For reference, Nevada is split into both a GOP primary and a caucus. Delegates are awarded via the caucus results, and that is where Trump is all but guaranteed a big win in the early February election.
Trump’s 30-point margin of victory in Iowa and record-breaking raw vote total in New Hampshire have set a winning tone for the rest of the 2024 election season, effectively netting him the primary and ensuring that he will square up for a rematch against “Crooked Joe Biden” at the ballot box in November.
