(Nashua, New Hampshire) Entering the Nashua hotel where Donald Trump was supposed to party with his supporters Tuesday night – but where he instead lost his temper with his rival – Carlos Pieis had a clear message for Nikki Haley, that the former president himself did not want to formulate.
“She should step down tomorrow,” the Hanover businessman said without even waiting for the results of the Granite State Republican primary. “There is no path that can lead her to victory. »
The poll results reinforced his view. Donald Trump completed a double in New Hampshire which should secure him the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, if history and recent polls are anything to go by.
After winning a convincing victory in last week’s Iowa caucuses, the former president defeated his latest rival in the first primary of the election season, capturing 54.9 percent of the vote to 43.5 percent. Former governor of South Carolina.
No Republican candidate has failed to secure their party’s presidential nomination after winning the first two runoffs of the race, those in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Donald Trump, who faces 91 charges in four criminal cases, is also ahead of Nikki Haley by more than 30 percentage points in the polls carried out in South Carolina, the state which will hold the next Republican primary, on 24 FEBRUARY.
Victorious, but furious
But he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate when he addressed his supporters. Immediately admitting his anger, he gave an unprecedented speech in the circumstances, fulminating against Nikki Haley who had just made fun of him during a speech during which she had also promised to continue her campaign instead of throwing the sponge.
PHOTO MATT ROURKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Donald Trump during his victory speech in Nashua
“I could introduce myself [sur cette tribune] and say, “Thank you for the victory,” or I might say, “Who is the imposter who came on the stage before me and claimed a victory?” “, he said in an angry tone when talking about Nikki Haley.
She got a very bad result, actually. She had to win.
Donald Trump, candidate for the Republican nomination
After letting his anger explode, Donald Trump gave the floor for a little over a minute to Vivek Ramaswamy, one of his former rivals, who criticized Nikki Haley for not having announced her withdrawal from the race.
Having spoken again, Donald Trump threatened Nikki Haley by launching insinuations about her.
“Just a quick word about Nikki. She’s not going to win. But if she won, she would be investigated by these people after 15 minutes,” he said of the Democrats. “And I could already give you five reasons why. Not big reasons, but things she doesn’t want to talk about. »
Earlier in the evening, during a speech in Concord, Nikki Haley notably raised the question of Donald Trump’s cognitive health, returning to the recent speech where the former president confused her with Nancy Pelosi.
“I have long called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75,” she continued. “Trump claims he would do better than me on one of these tests. Maybe yes, maybe no. But if he thinks that, he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me. »
PHOTO CHARLES KRUPA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nikki Haley, during her speech, in Concord
Nikki Haley also recalled the electoral defeats attributed or inflicted on Donald Trump since 2018.
With Trump, the Republicans lost almost every election. “We lost the Senate, we lost the House, we lost the White House, we lost in 2018. We lost in 2020, and we lost in 2022.
Nikki Haley, candidate for the Republican nomination
One of her supporters interrupted her, shouting, “Trump is a loser!” »
But he did win a primary in a state tailor-made for Nikki Haley. According to exit polls conducted for NBC, the electorate in the New Hampshire Republican primary was made up of 47% Republicans, 45% independents and 8% Democrats. These Democrats had changed their affiliation several months ago.
What’s more, 64% of voters said they did not identify with the Make America Great Again movement.
And yet, Donald Trump won by a margin of 10 percentage points.
The rest of the marathon
Does the South Carolina governor think she will have more success elsewhere? Early Tuesday morning, her campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, sent reporters a memo detailing why the 52-year-old candidate did not intend to withdraw from the race after New Hampshire.
She initially challenged the idea that New Hampshire was the last state whose electorate could help Nikki Haley’s cause. She recalled that independents could also participate in the primaries of South Carolina and Michigan, scheduled for February 24 and 27.
Then comes March 5, the date of Super Tuesday, where 11 of the 16 states which will put a total of 874 delegates at stake have open or semi-open primaries. These include Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Vermont, which have demographics favorable to Nikki Haley, according to her campaign manager.
Until then, everyone should take a deep breath. The campaign has not yet started in any of these states.
Betsy Ankney, campaign manager for Nikki Haley
But it is not certain that Nikki Haley can afford to drag out the race for much longer without further alienating Donald Trump’s supporters.
“I feel like it’s a waste of time and resources,” said Dylan Quattrucci, a 26-year-old Republican, celebrating Donald Trump’s victory at the Nashua hotel. “Every dollar Nikki Haley puts into her campaign could go to President Trump to oppose Joe Biden. I think that’s what we need to focus on right now, because America is falling apart under Joe Biden’s leadership. »
CS Clark, an author from Manchester, nevertheless welcomed the message that Donald Trump’s victory sends in New Hampshire.
“The message is that America is back,” she said. Our borders will be more secure and our economy stronger. Things will go back to the way they were. »
The White House also suggested that this victory delighted Joe Biden. The latter believes that his chances of being re-elected will increase when voters realize that Donald Trump will be the Republican Party candidate.
“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate. And my message to the country is that the stakes could not be higher,” he said in a statement after winning the symbolic Democratic Party primary in New Hampshire.