After his victory in New Hampshire, Donald Trump is almost certain to be the Republican nominee. He is still not the favorite in the presidential election in November. The analysis of the star-Correspondents.
Never in history has a candidate from the opposition party dominated the US primaries like Donald Trump. The decision often dragged on until May or June and other states were given the chance to have a say. This year everything is different. 57,000 votes for Trump in small Iowa and 170,000 in small New Hampshire were enough to show the Republican competition: Trump is unbeatable.
Five lessons from it:
1. The republican are the “Party of Trump”
If a final proof of his omnipotence was needed, the 77-year-old provided it in the primaries. He easily won the caucus elections in Iowa and pushed almost all of his competitors out of the race: Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, and especially Ron DeSantis, who wanted to be a kind of young Trump. Now Trump also took out the outsider Nikki Haley in a state that is actually known for its penchant for outsiders. It remains to be seen whether she will actually run in the next important primaries in her home state of South Carolina on February 24th. At least she got about 45 percent and avoided embarrassment.
Trump’s triumph is all the more astonishing because he seemed finished after the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and was blamed for the Republican failure in the 2022 midterm elections. But Trump, like no other, knows how to deny any blame, tear down opponents and rally favorites around him. He has got almost all Republican members of Congress behind him, as well as numerous governors, senators – and, above all, the party base. Trump is the absolute ruler of the Republicans, more powerful than ever before. He rarely speaks of the party himself. He prefers to talk about the MAGA movement – “Make America Great Again.”
