In Saturday’s South Carolina GOP primary, former President Trump beat former SC Gov. Nikki Haley by about 60-40%. Normally, when someone loses their own home state by 20 points, it’s a pretty solid sign that the campaign needs to start packing up its banners and bunting, but Haley vowed to continue pressing on -- at least through Super Tuesday, even though polls show Trump well ahead in all states with no path to victory for Haley.

https://www.westernjournal.com/nikki-haley-begins-frantic-final-stretch-gives-potential-date-wrap-campaign/

Haley and her supporters, and all Trump haters everywhere, tried to paint her landslide loss as a victory because Trump’s 20-point margin was slightly less than the polls predicted. Also, they like to claim that it shows a substantial number of Republicans want a candidate other than Trump (they say 40%, but in an open primary state, we have no way of knowing how many Haley voters were just Trump-hating Democrat crossover voters who will vote for Biden in November.)  But in 2016, in a more crowded field, Trump won the SC primary with about 33%. Does that mean he went on to lose the general election because two-thirds of Republicans wanted another candidate in the primary?

Adding to the gravity of Haley’s loss is the fact that she and groups supporting her blew millions of dollars in South Carolina, outspending Trump and his PACs by 10-1.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nikki-haley-s-backers-spent-millions-boosting-her-bid-in-south-carolina/ar-BB1iRAPG

Haley’s refusal to face reality has a lot of people asking, “What’s up with that?” Some think she must believe Trump will be taken out of the race by Democrat lawfare (and at this point, the vicious partisan nature of those indictments and convictions has become so obvious that I have to distrust either the motives or the intelligence of anyone who refuses to condemn them.) Others are questioning whether she’s been offered some big bucks deal by wealthy Democrats to stay in the race just to keep the party divided.

That might explain why some of her donors are liberals, and they continue to shovel money down what is clearly a bottomless pit at this point. But at least you can’t say that about Americans For Prosperity, the Koch-funded PAC. They’ve been helping to bankroll Haley’s campaign, but after South Carolina, they’re sticking a fork in it and calling it done.

https://redstate.com/benkew/2024/02/25/its-over-koch-network-pulls-plug-on-bankrolling-nikki-haleys-campaign-n2170565

Even though it seems a foregone conclusion that no matter what dirt the Dems throw at him, Trump will be the GOP nominee, Republicans need to be on their guard against complacency. Every dirty trick in the book (by Saul Alinsky) and more will be hurled at him by Democrats desperate to keep him from regaining power. There’s even talk that if Trump wins but Dems retake the House, they’ll refuse to certify his election. Or as they call that when anyone else even talks about it, “insurrection” and “destroying our democracy.” Is that the most rank hypocrisy and double standard? Of course, but what else is new?

I could link to a dry news article on that, but I think you’d rather hear about it from Kurt Schlichter:

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2024/02/26/will-the-democrats-let-donald-trump-be-president-if-he-wins-n2635684

Finally, to ensure nobody gets complacent, here’s an article on some worrisome indicators even in Trump’s South Carolina win that Republicans need to heed and prepare for.

https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/02/26/trumps-win-in-south-carolina-is-a-warning-not-a-triumph-n2170567