Trump takes aim at Haley in combative New Hampshire primary victory speech

Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire primary, likely cementing his place as the Republican presidential nominee.

The win over Nikki Haley, who had briefly threatened to rein in the former president, suggests there will be a smooth path to the GOP nomination for Trump, who also won easily in the Iowa caucuses last week. Addressing supporters in Nashua, Trump took a victory lap with a combative speech that included sharp criticism of Haley.

“She had a very bad night,” Trump said. “She came in third [in Iowa], and she’s still hanging around.”

The Associated Press called the race just as the last remaining polling places in New Hampshire closed at 8pm ET, following a contentious primary that saw groups backing both candidates spending millions of dollars in increasingly vicious TV advertising.

Haley, who branded Trump a “chaos” candidate, promised a more palatable version of the rightwing fire and brimstone that has come to characterize the Republican party. She surged in the polls in New Hampshire in mid-December, but could not capitalize on that momentum on Tuesday night.

Despite her disappointing performance in New Hampshire, Haley insisted she would continue on to her home state of South Carolina, which will hold its Republican primary next month. As she spoke to supporters in Concord on Tuesday, Haley congratulated Trump on his victory in the first primary state, but emphasized the importance of upcoming races.

“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation,” Haley told supporters in Concord. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”

But polls show Trump maintaining a significant lead in South Carolina, so it is unclear