Ready for sentencing: Trump overrules Haley
Only the judges, especially those of the Supreme Court, will be able to stop or impede Donald Trump's nomination as the Republican Party's candidate for the White House, and therefore his duel with the current president, Joe Biden. This is the foregone conclusion to be drawn from Trump's 11-percentage-point victory in the New Hampshire primary. With Ron de Santis dropping out of the race at the first moment, Trump only had one rival, the governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.
The forecasts only failed in the extent of the defeat of Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, who predicted a distance of 15 points with respect to Trump. In the end, it was 11, which the candidate interprets as a factor to be taken into consideration in order not to give up and stay in the race. She argues that there are still many states to be decided, especially the next one, South Carolina. It remains to be seen whether she even manages to hold on because Trump's electoral machine is proving to be a solid machine that is difficult to break.
It is a statistic but, as in the sporting arena where it is said that they are there to be broken, the truth is that it would be a major surprise if the tradition were to be interrupted, according to which the candidate who wins in Iowa and New Hampshire has always been the winner to contest the final duel to reach the White House. It also happens to be the case that tiny New Hampshire was a terrain in which Trump did not enjoy the greatest predictability. And, unlike Iowa, independent voters or even those from the rival Democratic Party could cast their ballots, which gave Haley an advantage. As the results were announced with Trump winning by 11 points, one can only assume that it was a landslide victory.
Incidentally, Trump is already looking more and more at who he believes will be his real rival, President Joe Biden. Biden was Trump's favourite target when he came out to celebrate his victory, and once again he attacked him where it hurts the most: his senility, which, in Trump's view, makes him virtually unfit for four more years in the White House: "That man is incapable of putting two sentences together coherently in a row. And he can't even find the stairs to get off a stage," Trump hammered to the jubilation of his followers.
Biden himself, for his part, is already coming to terms with the idea that his duel will inexorably be with Trump: "Tonight's results [in New Hampshire] confirm that Donald Trump is virtually assured of the Republican nomination," his campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodriguez, said in a press release, also acknowledging that "the former president has completed his absolute domination of the Republican Party".
This trend, which already seems inexorable, will also have global consequences. All the actors in international geopolitics will have to take or consolidate their actions and positions, given that they already know the broad outlines of Trump's course of action should he return to the White House.
And, returning to the possible decisive role played by the judges in whether or not Trump can run again, should he overcome the obstacle course before the courts, the polls already give him a 7-point lead over Biden. A sign that will perhaps make the Democratic Party react and hastily look for a character, obviously younger and with proven charisma, to confront the Trump steamroller.