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Donald Trump won another slate of Republican state primary victories on Tuesday which appeared to push him over the threshold of delegates needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination.
The former presient won four victories in Georgia, Mississippi, Hawaii and Washington Tuesday evening, four states which combined have enough delegates to the Republican convention in Milwaukee to put Mr Trump’s total over the 1,215 needed to win the primary — a majority of the overall total.
Mr Trump was presumed to have won all or most of the total up for grabs on Tuesday; each state allocates delegates differently but the former president is likely to win all or most of the individual congressional districts voting on Tuesday in addition to the states themselves.
His path towards the nomination became obstacle-free with the departure of Nikki Haley from the race last week, following her final disappointing showing on Super Tuesday. Despite campaigning in states including Virginia, Massachusetts, Utah and Texas, the former governor and UN ambassador won just a single state among the more than a dozen in play last week — Vermont, coincidentally the state representing the smallest prize of the evening.
She dropped out of the race a day later, thanking her supporters and declining to issue an explicit endorsement of her rival. Mr Trump, she said, would have to “earn” the votes of both Republicans and independents who oppose his nomination by the Republican Party.
He appears to be making few overtures to those voters as he presses on towards the GOP convention with few signs of ending his overtures to the most extreme far right of the conservative movement in America; in recent days that has included a dinner with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who faces accusations of authoritarian leanings. The former president also continues to promise to release people arrested and awaiting charges for their roles in the riot instigated on January 6 in an attempt to return Mr Trump to the presidency for a second term — possibly including those charged and/or convicted of such crimes as well.
Ms Haley was Mr Trump’s last prominent challenger for the Republican nomination. Most of the former president’s other GOP rivals for the presidency ended up endorsing him after dropping out, with the notable exceptions of Ms Haley and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Mr Christie in particular has remained a vocal critic of Mr Trump’s alleged actions which relate to his 91 criminal charges and multiple civil suits.
As the general election campaign begins, both Mr Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden are in attack mode as the former paints the latter as the victim of cognitive decline and patron of economic ruin, while the incumbent argues that his predecessor remains a direct threat to the future of American democracy. Mr Trump is facing multiple criminal charges over his attempts to stay in power in 2020, both at the federal level as well as in Georgia.
Prosecutors in Arizona are reportedly engaged in an effort to investigate the aftermath of the 2020 election and the pressure campaign mounted by Mr Trump and his allies to get state officials to change the results as well.
Source: independent.co.uk
