The Republican nomination is fast approaching for Donald Trump. The 77-year-old former president won, this Tuesday, March 5, most of the states at stake during the big election day of “Super Tuesday”. He was declared the winner of 12 out of 15 states by several American media. Among them California, North Carolina and Texas.
Results which confirm his lead against his Republican rival Nikki Haley and which open the way for a new confrontation with Joe Biden. “A wonderful evening, an incredible day” he greeted his supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida at the end of the day. The only negative note for the Trumpist camp: Nikki Haley deprived him of a grand slam by winning Vermont. The results from the remaining states should be known in the morning.
On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden, 81, is seeking a second term and faces no serious opposition. He won the first 13 states in play on Tuesday evening, attacking his potential future rival in the process. Donald Trump is “determined to destroy our democracy” and he is “focused on his own revenge and vengeance, not on the American people,” he said in a statement. There is virtually no suspense in this primary process as the two candidates are almost going it alone, each in their own party.
Will Nikki Haley last?
Since January 15 and despite his legal troubles, Donald Trump has won almost all the primaries organized by his party. Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the UN, poses as the candidate who will be able to restore “normality” in the face of “Trump’s chaos”. But most Republican voters are turning a deaf ear to his plea. Apart from victories on Sunday in Washington and in Vermont on Tuesday, she has had a series of bitter defeats, including in the state of which she was governor, South Carolina.
Will she stay in the race if the bad news continues to fall? It remains vague. “We’re going to continue through Super Tuesday,” she said in late February. “I didn’t think any further in terms of strategy.” The primaries can in theory stretch into the summer. But the Trump team is planning a victory “on March 19” at the latest, after votes notably in Georgia and Florida. A schedule that would allow Donald Trump to concentrate as soon as possible on his duel with President Joe Biden, before being sucked into his legal meetings: his first criminal trial begins on March 25, in New York.
Joe Biden facing the Americans on Thursday
Joe Biden, for his part, has an avenue to be a candidate for re-election. The two other Democrats chasing him, Minnesota MP Dean Phillips and best-selling author Marianne Williamson, have never really aroused enthusiasm, despite recurring criticism of the president’s age or his support for Israel. . This “Super Tuesday” is therefore at most a formality for Joe Biden.
But the leader will defend his record and unfold his vision for America on Thursday during a major general policy speech to Congress, the traditional “State of the Union”. Struggling in the polls, according to experts he will have to use this last address to the American people to present a strong contrast between his vision and what the return to life would be like under Donald Trump.