By Sushil Kutty
Former US President Donald Trump won New Hampshire on Wednesday, January 24. His rival, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, went the way of businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who is now Trump’s shadow after failing in his quest to be the dark horse. But with Haley on a limb, Trump is more or less the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the President’s post, general elections for which will be held later this year in November.
That said, Trump couldn’t take his mind off Nikki Haley, who kept needling him with irritating “this is far from over” type comments. Nikki will be taking her New Hampshire defeat to her home state South Carolina, where Donald Trump is beating her by over 30 points in the various opinion polls. From all appearances, Nikki Haley’s swansong has been set to music and would be playing throughout the United States.
But CNN and MSNBC haven’t reconciled to the thought of Nikki Haley pulling out of the race — that Nikki’s political career is over and done with and, hereinafter, Nikki Haley needs to win three states in a row, which isn’t ‘Mission Impossible’ as long as Nikki Haley — the female version of Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun’ — doesn’t cave-in to Trump’s overwhelming support among Republicans.
Definitely, New Hampshire is proof that Donald Trump is the ‘Top Gun’ equivalent in the conservative MAGA World and the MAGA World is set on the idea that Trump deserves a third chance. This time, he will ace it and leave the ‘Never Trumpers’ wasting in the aisles — the Adam Kinzingers and the Liz Cheneys can’t think of another Trump term.
Vice President Kamala Harris is of the same bent. A couple of days ago, Harris blurted out that she’s “scared” thinking of the “Return of Donald Trump”. But it is the band of ‘Never Trumpers’ who feel cheated — “Is there a future for the Republican Party?” they ask. The legion of ‘Never Trumpers’ include the very illustrious Mitt Romney.
Most ‘Never Trumpers’ believe the Republican Party is a MAGA party and the party cannot be “reformed, fixed or put back on the track” again. Not in this lifetime of the current set of ‘Never Trumpers’. Nikki Haley, who has been labelled ‘RINO’— Republican In Name Only—is running on the belief that she’s young enough for another shot at the Presidency.
So, no worries. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who has been giving company to Nikki Haley throughout the nearly one year of campaigning, is aghast that Trump won and “moderate face” Nikki Haley couldn’t. There are plenty of Americans who feel the same and have been maimed in the heart by Trump’s Iowa and New Hampshire victories.
The ‘Never Trumpers’ want Trump out and the party moving back to centre-stage. To its old self, like in the times of Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes. “The party needs to burn to the ground,” said one ‘Never Trumper’, calling for urgent healing. Some of the ‘Never Trumpers’ have gotten old in the eight years of Trump’s MAGA movement. These ‘Never Trumpers’ have been going around telling whoever cared to listen that Trump would lose to President Joe Biden and shouldn’t be the Republican nominee.
Towards the end of her campaigning for New Hampshire, Nikki Haley also picked up this line of attack but it did not work. The twice-impeached Trump’s invincibility is tops. The cases against the Jan 6 “insurrection” couldn’t stop Trump and he has been indicted four times. Also, he faces 91 criminal charges. There is a case of sexual abuse of a writer, too. But none of these mattered. Many top Americans thought Donald Trump would be easy meat, including supporters of Nimrata ‘Nikki’ Randhava alias Nikki Haley.
Yet, it is Donald Trump who is getting closer and closer to the GOP nomination. Nikki Haley has a powerful set of dollar donors and reports of their commitment to the task at hand keep appearing in the media. They are willing to go to any dollar amount to ensure Haley remains a viable alternative to Donald Trump.
The ‘Never Trumpers’ have friends in Wall Street. But Nikki Haley couldn’t deliver to her donors. Not in Iowa, and not in New Hampshire. Next is her home-state South Carolina, where polling takes place on February 24. In New Hampshire, Trump won by 14 points. The prediction is, Donald Trump will wrap up the GOP nomination by mid-March at most, which is early by a mile and more. The last time Nikki Haley was in the Oval Office, she was Trump’s UN Ambassador. A ‘next time’ is getting difficult to visualize. There are Americans, read Republicans, who are ready to bet their ranch on Trump. Nikki Haley is not one of them but Nikki Haley is hanging on to the race for now, for ‘Dear South Carolina’. (IPA )
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