Trump hails Super Tuesday wins as Haley ends campaign
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump marched towards a White House rematch with President Joe Biden in November as his final Republican rival Nikki Haley was reportedly set to drop out on Wednesday after a heavy defeat in the “Super Tuesday” primaries.
Haley, 52, the former US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, was about to suspend her campaign, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported. She was due to speak in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday.
Former president Trump swept 14 out of 15 states up for grabs on the biggest day of the 2024 race so far, with Haley denying him only in the northeastern state of Vermont as he covets a second term in the Oval Office.
Incumbent Biden also swept the Democratic “Super Tuesday” primaries, although he was effectively uncontested, and the 81-year-old will now turn his attention to his crucial State of the Union speech on Thursday.
Eyeing a historic comeback to the US presidency, Trump told cheering supporters at his Mara-lago beach club in Florida that they had witnessed “an amazing night and an amazing day.”
“They call it ‘Super Tuesday’ for a reason,” said Trump, 77.
“This is a big one. They tell me, the pundits and otherwise, that there has never been one like this, never been anything so conclusive.”
This year’s Super Tuesday was sapped of much of its suspense as Biden and Trump had effectively secured their parties’ nominations before a ballot was cast on
Tuesday.
Haley, a former South Carolina governor, has failed to throw significant obstacles in Trump’s path to the nomination since finishing a distant third in the opening contest in Iowa in January.
Impeached twice, beaten by seven million votes in 2020 and facing 91 felony charges in four trials, Trump has a profile unlike any US presidential election candidate in history. Yet his appeal among working-class, rural and white voters, particularly on issues like immigration and the economy, has propelled him toward the nomination in one of the most lopsided primary seasons ever seen. Haley — a favourite of affluent, suburban voters and university graduates — was set to collect only a handful of the delegates needed to secure the nomination.