Photo: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a primary election night party in Nashua, N.H. Barely 400,000 votes have been cast in two rural Republican primaries over the span of eight days. But both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are behaving like their parties’ nominees already. Trump’s double-digit victory Tuesday in independent-minded New Hampshire, where he was considered more vulnerable than perhaps anywhere else, was a rhetorical tipping point for both Democrats and Republicans. “It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my mes ..read more

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential campaign on Sunday, ending his 2024 White House bid just before the New Hampshire primary while endorsing his bitter rival Donald Trump. The decision leaves Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley as the last major candidates remaining in the race ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. This is the scenario Trump’s foes in the GOP have long sought, raising the stakes for this week’s contest as the party’s last chance to stop the former president who has so far dominated the race. But as some Trump critics cheered, DeSantis ..read more

Donald Trump used his social media platform Friday to mock Nikki Haley ‘s birth name, the latest example of the former president keying on race and ethnicity to attack people of color, especially his political rivals. In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Nimbra.” Haley, the former South Carolina governor, was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has always gone by her middle name, “Nikki.” She took the surname “Haley” upon her marriage in 1996. Trump, himself the son, grandson and twice ..read more

Photo: A crowd waits outside a venue in Atkinson, N.H., in the bitter cold for a Trump event Neither snow, freezing rain, nor an interminable wait to see and hear former President Donald Trump could dampen the fervor felt by his legions of supporters at the leading GOP nominee’s first Granite State stop following his crushing victory in Iowa. “We’re here for it; we’re here for him,” said Paul, a plumber from Sandown who was one of hundreds standing in line for more than 90 minutes in freezing temperatures outside the Atkinson Resort and Country Club. And as if the glacial pace of the security ..read more

Photo: Supporters cheer as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Atkinson, N.H. After Donald Trump’s record victory in the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire voters now get their turn to decide just how competitive the Republican nominating fight will be as the former president continues to dominate his party. Trump was eager Tuesday to flaunt his 30-point victory in Iowa a night earlier, as he stepped up the pressure on former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to improve on their distant finishes in the opening votes of ..read more

Photo: Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a Northside Conservatives Club Meeting at The District in Ankeny, Iowa, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024 As Republicans make their case for the future, they keep getting stuck on the past. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent much of the summer mired in controversy over new educational standards that call for teaching that slaves developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.” Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley failed last month to mention slavery as the root cause of the Civil War ..read more

Home affordability is expected to be a pressing issue for American families again this year and although it is not a top priority for Republican presidential candidates yet, they are talking about it. At a rally last month in Durham, New Hampshire, former President Donald Trump said mortgages have become unattainable to the average person and promised to go after banks if he wins back the White House. “After three years of Bidenomics, they call it Bidenomics, from hell, the average monthly mortgage payment has gone from $1,746 under my administration to $3,322 today, but you can’t ge ..read more

Television viewers were more interested in watching a Donald Trump town hall than the first head-to-head debate between Republican challengers Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. The live town hall, which aired on Fox News Channel in prime time on Wednesday, was watched by 4.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. The CNN debate, which aired live at the same time, was seen by just under 2.6 million, per Nielsen. Fox said the Trump campaign demanded that the town hall go head-to-head on TV against CNN’s debate at 9 p.m. Eastern, as a condition to the former president’s appearance. Trump has not ..read more

Former President Donald Trump urged his supporters Friday evening not to be complacent in the face of a commanding polling lead as he kicked off the sprint to the Iowa caucuses with his first events of the election year. “Ten days from now, the people of this state are going to cast the most important vote of your entire lives,” Trump told several hundred supporters gathered in Sioux Center. He implored them to turn out on caucus night, warning, “Bad things happen when you sit back.” Trump held a pair of commit-to-caucus events, one in the far northwest corner of the state on the border with S ..read more

Former President Donald Trump will spend Saturday’s third anniversary of the Capitol riot by holding two campaign rallies in leadoff-voting Iowa in his bid to win back the White House. To mark the moment, President Joe Biden plans to visit a site near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Friday where George Washington and the struggling Continental Army endured a tough winter during the American Revolution. Biden’s advisers say the stop in a critical swing state will highlight Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 siege and give the Democrat a chance for him to lay out the stakes of this year’s election. Weath ..read more