2024-01-23 13:21:47
MONDE – The path is clearing a little more for Donald Trump. His competitor Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, who came second in the primaries in the Iowa caucus, announced his withdrawal from the race for the Republican nomination. He announced his intention to support the former American president, who must now get rid of his former ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley. The package of DeSantis, considered in 2023 as a promising candidate for the Republican nomination, comes two days before the primaries in the state of New Hampshire.
Ron DeSantis, until then considered Donald Trump’s main opponent, was even predicted to be the winner in polls at the beginning of last year, his opponent being mired in numerous trials. The latter himself recognized, during the mid-term elections, that Ron DeSantis could be, for him, a serious competitor. The governor of Florida also enjoyed a solid political reputation, particularly for his bold initiatives against anti-Covid measures.
Trump can count on DeSantis
But the machine seized up. For DeSantis, the first problems, of a technical nature, occurred during the launch of the campaign. Convinced by Elon Musk to announce his candidacy on
A first misstep that Donald Trump and Joe Biden took great joy in. “Technical problems. Awkward silences. A total failure”, quipped the former president. As for the current tenant of the White House, he shared a link to his fundraising campaign, commenting on it with: “This link works”.
Ron DeSantis was also criticized for his lack of charisma as well as the instability of his team. His defeat in Iowa last Monday buried his hopes. Donald Trump crushed his two rivals by obtaining more than 50% of the votes. Ron DeSantis came in second place with 21% of the vote, ahead of Nikki Haley and the other candidate for the nomination, Vivek Ramaswamy, who, at the end of the vote, announced his decision to throw in the towel after having obtained a score less than 10%.
“It is clear to me that the majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis noted. He justified his decision by the fact that he could not “ask nos volunteers to donate their time and money if we don’t have a clear path to victory”. If he recognizes disagreements with Donald Trump, “like on the coronavirus”, he believes that his rival “is better than the current incumbent, Joe Biden”.
Towards another landslide victory in New Hampshire?
His package comes two days before the primaries in New Hampshire. Donald Trump therefore only has one last rival to eliminate. This is Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, the same one whom Trump appointed US ambassador to the UN.
Coming third in the state of Iowa with 19% of the vote, Haley expressed her intention to go all the way despite the gap that separates her from Donald Trump. After wishing “the best” to DeSantis, “a good governor” who has “led a very good campaign”she recalled that “so far only one state has voted. Half of the votes went to Donald Trump, the other half did not”. She is thus banking on the vote of independent voters in New Hampshire. “Voters deserve to have a say in whether we head down a road of Trump and Biden again”she believes.
The day after his victory, the former president had to face a new trial, which pitted him against the writer Elizabeth Jean Carroll who accused him of sexual assault and defamation in a first civil trial, at the resulting from which he was sentenced, in May 2023, to pay five million dollars for sexual assault in 1996 and defamation in 2022.
But Trump, who was to be heard on the eve of the New Hampshire primaries, can finally focus on them since the trial has been postponed, one of the jurors and one of the Republican candidate’s lawyers showing symptoms of Covid .
#Ron #DeSantis #Donald #Trumps #main #rival #Republican #nomination #withdraws #supports #President