Donald Trump wins Republican nomination for third straight presidential election

Former president and President Joe Biden both now have enough delegates to secure their respective party nominations after sweeping another round of states on Tuesday

Donald Trump won another slate of Republican primaries on Tuesday, pushing him over the threshold of delegates needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination and setting the stage for a 2020 election rematch this November.

The former president won Republican primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington and the Republican caucuses in Hawaii on Tuesday night, taking him over the threshold of 1,215 delegates needed to secure the Republican party nomination.

He took to Truth Social to call it “my great honor” to represent his party before lashing out at his Democratic rival – who he described as “the Worst, Most Incompetent, Corrupt, and Destructive President in the History of the United States”.

Mr Biden had easily secured the Democratic nomination for president earlier on Tuesday after winning his party’s Georgia primary. He then went on to win the primaries in Mississippi and Washington.

Mr Trump’s path towards the nomination became obstacle-free with the departure of Nikki Haley from the race last week, following her final disappointing showing on Super Tuesday. Despite campaigning in states including Virginia, Massachusetts, Utah and Texas, the former governor and UN ambassador won just a single state among the more than a dozen in play last week — Vermont, coincidentally the state representing the smallest prize of the evening.

She dropped out of the race a day later, thanking her supporters and declining to issue an explicit endorsement of her rival. Mr Trump, she said, would have to “earn” the votes of both Republicans and independents who oppose his nomination by the Republican Party.

He appears to be making few overtures to those voters as he presses on towards the GOP convention with few signs of ending his overtures to the most extreme far right of the conservative movement in America; in recent days that has included a dinner with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who faces accusations of authoritarian leanings. The former president also continues to promise to release people arrested and awaiting charges for their roles in the riot instigated on January 6 in an attempt to return Mr Trump to the presidency for a second term — possibly including those charged and/or convicted of such crimes as well.

Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination in the 12 March primaries (REUTERS)

Ms Haley was Mr Trump’s last prominent challenger for the Republican nomination. Most of the former president’s other GOP rivals for the presidency ended up endorsing him after dropping out, with the notable exceptions of Ms Haley and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Mr Christie in particular has remained a vocal critic of Mr Trump’s alleged actions which relate to his 91 criminal charges and multiple civil suits.

As the general election campaign begins, both Mr Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden are in attack mode as the former paints the latter as the victim of cognitive decline and patron of economic ruin, while the incumbent argues that his predecessor remains a direct threat to the future of American democracy. Mr Trump is facing multiple criminal charges over his attempts to stay in power in 2020, both at the federal level as well as in Georgia.

Prosecutors in Arizona are reportedly engaged in an effort to investigate the aftermath of the 2020 election and the pressure campaign mounted by Mr Trump and his allies to get state officials to change the results as well.