Donald Trump was always going to win the South Carolina primary, it was simply a matter of margin – margin of victory and margin of Republican shift.
This result moves the party’s centre of gravity yet further, from traditional to Trump.
It strengthens his status as Republican nominee-in-waiting, as a movement waits for Nikki Haley’s next move.
She has pledged to fight on – “I’m a woman of my word” – but the question is: for how long?
Before this primary, her game plan had been to get as far as ‘Super Tuesday’, the 5 March when the results of 16 states are declared and candidates can secure most ‘single-day’ party support.
In theory, Super Tuesday can turn the contest on its axis.
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Team Haley’s trouble is there was nothing super about Saturday in South Carolina, her home state, to suggest a winning trajectory.
They will assess what this result says about her longer-term prospects and so will financial backers forever pondering when to stop writing cheques and write her off.
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Image: Pic: Reuters
In a losing race, they have seen reason to back the tortoise against the hare.
Around a third of Republican Party members don’t support Trump and their number would increase if he is convicted.
In those circumstances, Nikki Haley has exploited the primary campaign stage to define herself as an alternative choice.
Should Donald Trump be forced to pull out, she would be handily placed as a last-standing alternative with delegate support in the bank.
Her continued pursuit of the party nomination has antagonised Republicans supporting, and resigned to, Donald Trump.
A party establishment rallied around the running favourite is offended by an increasingly belligerent challenger writing scripts for Democrat attack ads but it would, doubtless, be placated by polls that position Nikki Haley as a better bet to beat Joe Biden.
It is a case for Nikki Haley but not one that carries support in winning numbers, far from it. How far she continues is the serious question now.
If she quits before the month is out, this will have been the shortest contested presidential primary since the nomination process, as we know it, began (beating the Democratic race in 2004, which ended on 3 March).
In America’s story of the presidential race 2024, there is much about South Carolina that has felt like a footnote – possibly because it is.
Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.
While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.
The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.
Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.
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Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.
Image: US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters
Trump holds trade deal talks – reports
It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indianand Israelirepresentatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.
The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.
Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.
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China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.
Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.
Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.
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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.