Trump defeats Haley in South Carolina Republican primary

Photo: Anna Moneymaker Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump in National Harbor, Maryland, on Saturday

Inès Bel Aiba – Agence France-Presse to Charleston

7:23 p.m.

• United States

In a hurry to plan a duel with Biden, Donald Trump on Saturday inflicted a defeat on his last Republican rival, Nikki Haley, during the South Carolina primary.

The setback is all the more scathing for the fifty-year-old, embodying a more moderate wing of the Republican Party, as it takes place in the state of which she was governor for six years.

But as in the four other previous ballots, the aim of which is to nominate the Republican candidate for the presidential election in November, the former American president was merciless.

Donald Trump's victory was projected by the American media just a few seconds after the polls closed.

Despite his legal troubles, some of which put him at risk of prison, the tempestuous septuagenarian is the ultra-favorite candidate of the right, according to all the polls.

The stakes of this primary were clear.

“If Trump is able to beat former Governor Nikki Haley in his home state, that would likely make him a near-guaranteed candidate for the Republican Party nomination,” said David Darmofal, a political scientist at the University of Carolina. from the South, to the AFP.

“Defeat Joe the Scum”

Donald Trump now hopes to force his former UN ambassador to throw in the towel so he can focus his attacks on Democrat Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term in November.

“The primary ends tonight and it’s time to turn to the presidential election so we can defeat Joe the Crackle,” Steven Cheung, Donald’s spokesperson, said in a statement. Trump, using one of the mogul's favorite nicknames for the Democrat.

But Nikki Haley, 52, is hanging on: she refuses for the moment to leave the race for the Republican nomination.

The plea from this woman, the only Republican running, is simple: “We will not survive four more years of Trump’s chaos. »

She urges them to choose “a new generation of conservative leaders” instead.

Taking advantage of new controversial remarks from her rival, Nikki Haley strongly criticized him on Saturday. Mired in legal troubles, he suggested that his indictments made him a sympathetic candidate to African Americans.

He was meeting with a group of conservative African-Americans in South Carolina on Friday night when he said, “A lot of people say black people like me because they've suffered so much and been discriminated against, and they like me see themselves as someone who has been discriminated against. »

“This is the chaos that comes with Donald Trump, and these kinds of offensive comments will continue every day until the election,” said Nikki Haley.

Donald Trump's team brushes aside his argument.

“Normality”

But Nikki Haley does not admit defeat. After Saturday, the two rivals should face each other on Tuesday in Michigan.

The Republicans of Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota will then vote in turn, a well-orchestrated ballet which will lead the candidates to one of the biggest political meetings in the 'year, Super Tuesday.

On March 5, around fifteen states, including Texas, California, Colorado and Virginia, will hold their polls simultaneously during a major election day.

The primaries can in theory stretch until July. But the Trump team is predicting a victory “on March 19” at the latest.

The former president wants to concentrate his resources as soon as possible in his return match with Joe Biden, Democratic president candidate for re-election, before being sucked into his serial legal troubles.

His first criminal trial begins March 25.