Nikki Haley drops out, effectively handing Donald Trump the Republican nomination

Donald Trump’s final rival for the Republican nomination has dropped out, setting up an explosive rematch with Joe Biden, but Nikki Haley took one parting shot at the former US president.

Former US president Donald Trump’s last remaining Republican rival has dropped out of the election race, effectively handing him the party’s nomination for what will be an explosive rematch with President Joe Biden.

Nikki Haley suspended her campaign the morning after she lost 14 of 15 states on Super Tuesday, although she notably refused to endorse Mr Trump as the Republican candidate after he repeatedly attacked her as “Birdbrain” and pressured her to walk away.

While Ms Haley was unable to put a dent in Mr Trump’s stunning march to his third straight Republican nomination, she retained a sizeable minority of support and said it was now up to him to “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him”.

“Our conservative cause badly needs more people,” she said.

“This is now his time for choosing.”

Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican race after she was dominated on Super Tuesday by Donald Trump. Picture: Anna Moneymaker (AFP)

Mr Trump – who had previously said anyone who contributed to Ms Haley’s campaign was “permanently barred” from his “Make America Great Again” movement – attacked her on his social media platform during her brief speech on Wednesday morning (local time).

“Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record-setting fashion,” the former president said.

“At this point, I hope she stays in the ‘race’ and fights it out until the end!”

Mr Trump said he would “like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our nation”.

Ms Haley, who served as Mr Trump’s United Nations ambassador, said she had “no regrets” from her presidential campaign.

“Although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in,” she said, pointing to the country’s $US34 trillion debt bill, the dysfunction of Congress, and wars in Israel and Ukraine that she linked to “America’s retreat”.

“We must turn away from the darkness of hatred and division … Our country is too precious to let our divisions divide us.”

“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish him well.”

Donald Trump greets supporters at his Super Tuesday victory party. Picture: Win McNamee (AFP)

But she did not step back from her attacks on Mr Trump during the campaign, in which she warned the Republican Party that he would lose to Mr Biden in November’s general election.

In refusing to endorse the former president, whose candidacy will be officially confirmed at the party’s national convention in July, Ms Haley quoted former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as saying: “Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.”

Mr Biden praised Ms Haley’s courage in running against Mr Trump in a party in which “so few dare to speak the truth” about the former president, who is facing unprecedented legal peril with 91 criminal charges across four separate cases.

“You don’t have to agree with me on everything to know MAGA extremism is a threat to our country,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Trump will become the first president to face a criminal trial later this month in New York, over hush money paid to a porn star who claimed to have had an affair with him, while his lawyers also moved this week to seek a new trial in a defamation case brought by the writer E Jean Carroll.

Mr Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, with the writer later winning damages totalling $US83m ($A126m) after accusing him of defaming her over the incident.

Alina Habba, the former president’s lawyer, moved to seek a fresh trial to reduce the damages bill.

TRUMP CRUSHES HALEY ON SUPER TUESDAY

Earlier, Mr Trump crushed Ms Haley in the Super Tuesday primary elections, all but guaranteeing he will be the party’s presumptive nominee within a fortnight for an extraordinary rematch with Joe Biden.

On the biggest day on the primary calendar, with Republican voters casting ballots in nominating contests across 15 states, Mr Trump almost completed a clean sweep over Nikki Haley.

“They call it Super Tuesday for a reason – this is a big one,” he told his supporters.

“They tell me, the pundits and otherwise, that there’s never been one like this, there’s never been anything so conclusive.”

Donald Trump celebrates at his Super Tuesday victory party. Picture: Chandan Khanna (AFP)

The former president easily defeated his former United Nations ambassador in Texas and California, the two biggest states up for grabs, while also winning North Carolina, which looms as a key battleground in November’s general election.

Mr Trump also won Virginia and Massachusetts, two of the few states that offered Ms Haley a chance to launch an unlikely fightback, as well as Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Maine, Colorado, Arkansas and Minnesota.

While Ms Haley claimed a solitary win in Vermont, the results heightened the pressure on her to drop out of the race. She had no events scheduled after Tuesday or any further TV or radio advertisements booked, a sign she could be about to pull the pin.

Mr Trump did not even mention his opponent in his victory speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, instead spruiking his record in office and attacking Mr Biden as “the worst president in the history of our country”.

Voters enter a polling location during the Texas primary elections. Picture: AFP

“We want to have unity and we’re going to have unity and it’s going to happen very quickly,” he said.

“November 5th is going to go down as the single most important day in the history of our country … We’re going to take back our country.”

Under party rules, delegates are awarded to the winner of each state nominating contest for the Republican convention in July, where the presidential nominee is locked in.

Mr Trump has dominated the primaries, racking up 273 of the 1215 delegates required for a majority before Super Tuesday, putting him on track to hit that mark on March 12 or March 19 after his latest victories. He was also expected to win Utah and Alaska.

On Monday, when asked if she would quit after Super Tuesday, Ms Haley said: “Our goal has always been to stay competitive. As long as we’re competitive, we’ll run through the tape.”

Donald Trump supporters. Picture: Getty Images

The Democrats also held primary contests on Tuesday in which Mr Biden tightened his grip on the nomination, except for a bizarre loss to an obscure candidate in American Samoa.

In a statement, the President said the results “leave the American people with a clear choice”, as he accused his likely opponent of being “determined to destroy our democracy” and “driven by grievance and grift, focused on his own revenge and retribution”.

“Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division and darkness that defined his term in office?” Mr Biden said.

But amid mounting concerns about the 81-year-old’s age and performance, he has slumped behind Mr Trump in national polls on their likely head-to-head election contest.

Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal found 47 per cent of voters were backing Mr Trump, compared to 45 per cent for Mr Biden as his approval rating remained stuck at 37 per cent.

The New York Times had the President trailing his predecessor by 43 per cent to 48 per cent.

Taylor Swift performing at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last month. Picture: Getty Images

It took a Supreme Court ruling on Monday to ensure Mr Trump was on the ballot in Colorado and Maine, where authorities had sought to enforce a constitutional ban on insurrectionists holding public office over his role in the deadly January 6 riot after his 2020 election loss.

As millions of Americans headed to the polls on Super Tuesday, Taylor Swift made a surprise intervention in the tumultuous election, urging her fans in an Instagram post to “vote the people who most represent YOU into power”.

Swift, who backed Mr Biden in his 2020 defeat of Mr Trump, did not endorse a candidate. But the President’s team has been actively seeking her support for his re-election campaign, sparking wild conspiracy theories among hard-right Republicans.

Originally published as Nikki Haley drops out, effectively handing Donald Trump the Republican nomination