Trump supporters claim his double-digit New Hampshire win means Haley White House bid is doomed
Donald Trump won New Hampshire Republican primary contest against Nikki Haley – but Ms Haley has vowed to stay in the race.
“This race is far from over,” she told her supporters while in Concord, New Hampshire, after losing to Mr Trump, while his victory speech was filled with bashings directed at his opponent and criticised her for giving a speech “like she won.”
But many of Mr Trump’s supporters are not convinced that Ms Haley’s White House bid will stand the test of time.
Taylor Budowich, the CEO of Make America Great Again Inc, said in a statement that Ms Haley should finish up her campaign so supporters can focus on Republican party success in the election.
“Nikki Haley said she’s running to stop the re-election of Harris-Biden. Yet, without a viable path to victory, every day she stays in this race is another day she delivers to the Harris-Biden campaign,” Mr Budowich said.
“It’s time for unity; it’s time to take the fight to the Democrats and for Nikki Haley: it’s time to drop out,” he said.
This echoes the words of senators Marco Rubio and John Cornyn, who both posted on X that Mr Trump is the clear candidate winner, with Mr Cornyn saying the focus needs to shift towards beating Joe Biden.
“I have seen enough. To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice,” Mr Cornyn wrote, adding that he would continue to work to win a Republican Senate majority and to elect Mr Trump.
A Trump campaign official told NBC that Ms Haley would face more “aggressiveness” from her opponent in the wake of the New Hampshire primary, focusing on her record as South Carolina governor.
Similarly, Congresswoman and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene said to CBC News that it could damage Ms Haley’s career going further.
“It’s over and she’s going to destroy any future political career that she wants to have. If she keeps it going and acts like such a fool and she’s unwilling to listen to Republican voters, she’s going to look really bad. Not very bright,” she said to the outlet.
Mr Trump’s Iowa victory saw entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspend his bid for the presidential nomination, leading to Mr Ramaswamy shifting his focus and support to the former president.
Mr Ramaswamy, who stood beside the New Hampshire double-digit winner on stage after his victory, also took to X to criticise into Ms Haley’s decision to carry on in the race.
“The fact that Nikki is pressing ahead exposes the ugly underbelly of this race: there’s no way she can defeat Trump through the front door, so her donor puppet masters are propping her up long enough while plotting to eliminate Trump from the ballot. It’s ugly. But it’s the TRUTH,” he claimed in his post.
Mr Trump is the current frontrunner for the 2024 Republican candidate, and gained more than half of the votes in New Hampshire, according to early polling data.
Yet, Ms Haley, despite backlash from her opponent, is carrying on, citing that there are dozens of states left to go, including South Carolina, where she spent eight years as governor.
