Trump's New Hampshire win looks like an exclamation mark on his transformation of the GOP: ANALYSIS

New Hampshire marked the first primary Donald Trump won in 2016, back when the GOP establishment and much of the nation would not or could not imagine what was coming.

New Hampshire may also go down as the last primary Trump was pressed to win in 2024, despite organized and well-funded efforts to break the hold he has over Republican voters — and clear demonstrations of who he is, what he represents and the perils associated with his renomination.

Trump's solid win in Tuesday's Republican primary in New Hampshire leaves the campaign for the GOP nomination hanging by a southern thread. His former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is the last major candidate standing and now has to explain away what is projected to be a double-digit loss to anxious donors and voters, with her home state of South Carolina serving as a potential last stand — a full month away.

Haley on Tuesday night congratulated Trump but declared that while New Hampshire is the first-in-the-nation primary state, it is far from the last. Reiterating her attacks on Trump's mental acuity and electability, she reminded supporters that the next major state up is «my sweet state of South Carolina.»

«We still have a ways to go. But we keep moving up,» she said. «A Trump nomination is a [Joe] Biden win and a Kamala Harris presidency.»

Trump's victory speech lashed out at Haley as an «imposter» claiming victories even as she went down handily in defeat — while he also repeated lies about the 2020 election and mocked Biden's own ability to do the job.

«She didn't win — she lost,» the former president said of Haley, offering just a hint of the vicious campaigning expected to come.

Haley's finish in New Hampshire was stronger than recent polls suggested it might be. Exit polls