Trump wants to win the match against Haley on “Super Tuesday”

Donald Trump is counting on a show of force on Tuesday during the big election day of 'Super Tuesday'. to definitively dismiss his last Republican rival Nikki Haley, and devote himself to the return match against Joe Biden.

“Super Tuesday” is an essential event in American politics, during which 15 states simultaneously organize their presidential primaries.

From Maine to California, from Texas to Virginia, from Alaska to Arkansas, millions of Americans are called to the polls to choose their Democratic and Republican candidates for the November election.

But this big election day, which is usually the subject of enormous media attention, has a slightly different flavor this year, as it seems decided in advance.

On the Republican side, only two candidates are still in the running.

– Donald Trump big favorite –

Donald Trump, 77, is by far the favorite, despite his legal troubles.

The American presidential calendar © AFP – Jonathan WALTER, Anibal MAIZ CACERES, Gal ROMA

With the exception of the primary on Sunday in Washington, the capital of the United States, won by Ms. Haley, the ex-president has won all the primaries organized by his party since January and, in doing so, skimmed a large part of the Republican competition.

Ms. Haley, 52, is therefore the only one still standing in her way.

The plea of ​​this woman, the only one in the running among the Republicans, is simple: “We will not survive four more years of Trump's chaos.”

She instead promises to restore some sense of “normalcy” and urges her peers to choose “a new generation of leaders.”

Republican voters are turning a deaf ear.

According to polls, Donald Trump is expected to win each of the next states in play, relying, as always, on an extremely solid base of followers.

– Nikki Haley hangs on –

Until her symbolic victory on Sunday evening in Washington, Ms. Haley had suffered a series of bitter defeats, including in the state of which she was governor.

The former UN ambassador under the Trump administration, however, continued to hold on, assuring that throwing in the towel would be “the easy way out” .

Will she stay in the race if the bad results continue to pile up on Tuesday?

Pressed on the question, the main interested party remains vague.

Nikki Haley, in Colorado, February 27, 2024 © AFP – Jason Connolly

“We're going to continue until Super Tuesday,” she told reporters in late February. “That's as far as I've thought about strategy.”

Donald Trump, who keeps calling his rival unflattering nicknames — ” “bird brain” is his favorite — insists that Nikki Haley “is going to lose every state” in the game on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t arouse enthusiasm, doesn’t mobilize crowds, nothing,” he said in a publication on his network, Truth Social.

– A formality for Biden –

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

The billionaire wants to be able to launch a rematch with Joe Biden as soon as possible — before being sucked into his legal troubles.

Joe Biden, at the White House, March 1, 2024 © AFP – SAUL LOEB

According to an AFP count, the billionaire has already spent nine days in 2024 in the courts, which he happily transforms into a campaign platform.

His first criminal trial began on March 25, in New York.

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden, 81, is running for re-election and faces no serious opposition. The candidacies of two Democrats launched in pursuit of him, the elected representative of Minnesota Dean Phillips and the best-selling author Marianne Williamson, have never really aroused enthusiasm, despite the recurring criticism expressed by voters on the age of the president , or its support for Israel.

Tuesday's elections are therefore almost a formality.

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