US Republican primaries: DeSantis drops out
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has withdrawn his candidacy for the Republican Party presidential nomination and endorsed Donald Trump's campaign. DeSantis made the announcement on X on Sunday. The race for the Republican candidacy will now be a duel between Trump and Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina. How will this turn out?
A battle between hawks and isolationists
Writing on her Facebook page, political scientist Olesya Yakhno comments on the upcoming duel between Trump and Haley:
“DeSantis's (expected) withdrawal in favour of Trump shows once again that the Republican primaries are not simply a contest between individual candidates, but a battle between two lines within the party: the isolationists and Trumpists on one side, and the anti-Trumpists and foreign policy hawks on the other. The inevitable battle for the nomination between Trump and Haley as representatives of these two groups will also determine the positioning of the Republican Party (which is significant for us in the context of the Republicans' stance in Congress on aid to Ukraine).”
Trump's rival running out of time
Helsingin Sanomat believes Donald Trump's candidacy is as good as certain:
“From Trump's point of view, DeSantis's announcement could not have come at a better time. The latter's supporters are likely to get behind Trump, not Haley. Vivek Ramaswamy, who withdrew from the race as soon as the Iowa result was announced, has already endorsed Trump. Haley's support in New Hampshire is relatively high, at 39 percent according to a recent CNN poll. But Trump still has a lead of more than ten percentage points. And she will have a harder time in the primaries yet to come. Haley has too much ground to make up and too little time to do it - bar a miracle.”
Haley's foreign policy would be no better
As long as little was known about Trump's rival Nikki Haley she was able to seem like a promising alternative, says Milliyet:
“But only until Haley became a presidential candidate and began airing views she had previously kept quiet about. ... With each subsequent meeting, each subsequent question and each subsequent answer, the image of Nikki Haley as far more of a 'globalist' than Trump and Biden becomes clearer. She has turned out to be a NeoCon who would be willing to split Iraq and Syria into three parts tomorrow and a Zionist who is so furious that she would set fire to Palestine and the whole idea of a two-state solution and fully supports Netanyahu.”