Donald Trump was visibly annoyed. And he didn't even try to hide his anger as he addressed his supporters in Nashua on Tuesday evening. After his triumph at the caucus in Iowa, he had appeared positively presidential and had mildly called on the Republicans to close ranks, but his face was now flushed and his eyes were grim. The Republican had just won his party's primary in New Hampshire – and as clearly as he had hoped. But his only remaining rival, Nikki Haley, was still unwilling to drop out of the race.
Trump complained: Things went badly for Haley. Nevertheless, she gave a victory speech. He won clearly – by a double-digit margin, although independents, many of them Democrats, could also take part in the vote in New Hampshire. As much as Trump likes the spotlight, he doesn't like to pretend: When he's angry, he shows it. After New Hampshire, he wanted to concentrate on the primary race against Joe Biden. Now he still has to deal with Haley for now.
Trump's rival Haley: The race is not over yet
The former UN ambassador had recently taken the podium in Concord, the small capital of the New England state. She first spoke of a “great evening” and had a few claqueurs briefly cheer for the cameras. She then congratulated Trump and added that he deserved to win. This was followed by the passage that later made Trump angry: There is currently a lot of talk that the race is over, she noted. All she wanted to say was: That's far from it. In New Hampshire the first primary election takes place, but not the last. Now she's going to South Carolina, her homeland, said the former governor of the southern state. And: “I am a fighter.”
Even that evening there were doubts that this was her last word. It was said that before her appearance in her campaign team there were discussions about what to do next. Ultimately, the major donors will decide. In South Carolina, Republicans will vote at the end of February. There is still plenty of time to reconsider the matter. In the southern state, where all major GOP representatives support Trump, the former president leads the polls by 30 to 40 percentage points.
Never has a Republican candidate who won both Iowa and New Hampshire not ultimately won the presidential nomination. In addition, Haley's people, who in the past few days had to take note of new polls that Trump had been able to expand his lead in the home straight, tried to say: For Haley it would be a success if Trump's lead remained in the single digits. Ultimately, it didn't live up to expectations. In Iowa it was a disappointing third place behind Ron DeSantis, the now retired governor from Florida. And in New Hampshire, she was counting on moderate Republicans and independent voters, who are more represented in the state than elsewhere, to give her success.
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From the start, however, she found herself in a dilemma: in order to mobilize these voters, she would have had to attack Trump more sharply. However, she couldn't do that because it would have alienated more conservative voters. Finally: Trump has also transformed the GOP in New Hampshire: it is no longer the “Country Club” Republicans in their navy blue double-breasted suits with gold buttons who are in charge, but “blue collar” voters, the so-called little man who thinks Trump is showing off it to the corrupt establishment.