Politics
It’s over, and other takeaways from Trump's defeat of Haley in New Hampshire
Former President Trump won the first Republican primary Tuesday in New Hampshire over his closest competitor, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, according to a projection by the Associated Press. Though the outcome was expected, it was significant.
Here are some takeaways.
It’s over
Yes, Haley remains in the race, for now. But Trump’s victory in the first primary state — which happens to have one of the more moderate and least Trump-friendly electorates in the GOP — all but seals hisparty’s nomination, setting up an expected rematch with President Biden.
The not-terribly-competitive nominating contest has underscored how much the GOP has become Trump’s party.
Trump left office with low approval ratings and two impeachments that followed an unprecedented attempt to overturn a lawful election. But he entered the nominating fight with many of the advantages of an incumbent, then scored wins in both Iowa and New Hampshire, a rare feat for a Republican presidential hopeful.
Endorsements tell part of that story. They don’t often matter, but two recent nods from former opponents demonstrate why Trump has been the default choice from the beginning. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott both got behind Trump soon after they left the race.
Neither man had much personal reason to embrace Trump. The former president relentlessly targeted DeSantis, who entered the race with high approval ratings, calling him “Desanctimonious” and mocking his appearance, among other insults. But both men endorsed Trump for the same reason they held back from attacking his vulnerabilities during the race: GOP voters still adore him. The two believe that if they want to have a future in the party, at least in the near term, they need to stay with Trump.
Does Haley drop out with her home state looming?
Haley has said repeatedly that she will not depart the race after New Hampshire — as she did again Tuesday night after the race was called for Trump.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not last in the nation. This race is far from over,” she told supporters.
Most candidates make similar statements until the moment they leave the race. Haley’s underdog strategy depended on winning New Hampshire, which is filled with highly educated Republican and independent voters whom Haley has been seeking.
The race next heads to Nevada and the Virgin Islands, which hold Republican caucuses Feb. 8.
Polls show Haley down by nearly 40 percentage points to Trump in South Carolina, her home state, which holds its Republican primaryFeb. 24. A big loss there would be damaging to her prospects, though not fatal. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio drew only 27% against Trump in his home state in 2016; though he soon exited the presidential race, he won reelection easily to his Senate seat that fall.
But many candidates, including Kamala Harris when she was a California senator, choose to avoid the potential stain on their resume that would come from losing in their home state. They dropped out before any ballots were cast in the 2020 race. In Harris’ case, it paid off with a nomination for vice president, though Haley seems unlikely to get the nod from Trump.
Nikki Haley supporters listen as the candidate speaks after her primary defeat.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Another historic moment for a twice-impeached president
Trump’s win Tuesday, coupled with last week’s caucuses victory in Iowa, marked another historic moment: It was the first time he faced voters since leaving office, still refusing to accept the election results while encouraging an angry mob that stormed theCapitol.
He’s facing 91 criminal charges and has threatened, among other things, to terminate the Constitution and give himself dictatorial powers for a day, while claiming that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution, even for acts that “cross the line.”
The question is a dividing line for many voters. In preliminary network exit polling, 85% of Haley’s voters said Trump, if convicted of a crime, is unfit to be president. Only 11% of Trump’s voters said that.
Democrats hope voters will start comparing Biden to ‘the alternative’
Biden for months has repeated the aphorism “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” He argues that his low approval rating — below 40% — will matter less once people zero in on the binary choice between him and Trump.
That process is likely to intensify as Trump gets closer to securing the nomination. The big question is whether the election, now forecast as close, will shift to Biden’s favor when voters take a closer look at Trump. Historically, Trump’s approval rating in polls has dropped as he gets more public exposure.
Turnout for a Trump-Biden rematch could fade
Voters showed up in huge numbers in 2018, 2020 and, in some states, 2022, in part because Trump inspires such strong positive and negative feelings. Abortion also played a large role in 2022, after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a constitutional right to the procedure.
Will that fervor persist in November, or are voters too fatigued and uninspired for a likely rematch that has turned off many? That’s one of the biggest questions and one that both parties will pursue now that the general election is taking shape.
Biden needs to shore up support from younger and Black voters, key groups for him in 2020 whose excitement has waned, polls show. Trump needs to minimize losses in the suburbs, where educated Republican women have defected.
What happens to third parties? Will they fade as usual or play spoiler?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been drawing double digits in some polls as an independent candidate. A centrist group called No Labels has been floating a third-party ticket, though no one has signed up to run.
History shows that these candidacies tend to fade by the time voters cast ballots. But they have had an impact, including in 1992, when Ross Perot drew 19% of the vote. Debate continues over which of the two major candidates he hurt worse: Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush with a mere 43% of the popular vote. In 2000, Ralph Nader may have tipped the balance for George W. Bush in his race against Al Gore.
Conventional wisdom holds that Biden will be hurt by a third-party candidate because Trump’s core base is so loyal. But that is unclear, especially in the case of Kennedy, whose conspiratorial views on vaccines and other topics align with those of many Trump supporters.
Politics
Jared Kushner’s overseas luxury resort project faces anti-corruption investigation amid violent protests
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Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating changes to the protected status of a coastal wetland where a luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, has drawn environmental opposition and protests, according to Politico.
SPAK, Albania’s special anti-corruption prosecution office, has opened a probe into changes made to the status of the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape in Zvërnec, Politico reported. The coastal wetland area is home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, and sea turtle nesting sites, Politico reported.
IVANKA TRUMP BREAKS DOWN IN EMOTIONAL INTERVIEW TALKING ABOUT HER MOTHER IVANA’S DEATH, OTHER CHALLENGES
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff participate in a charter announcement for President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace initiative in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2026. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)
In 2024, Kushner publicly discussed plans for his firm, Affinity Partners, to develop luxury tourism projects in Albania, including in the Zvërnec area. Earlier this year, he visited the area with his wife, Ivanka Trump.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recently confirmed to Politico that talks were ongoing between the government and Kushner over the deal, which is expected to include roughly 10,000 hotel rooms and villas.
EUROPEAN CAPITAL ROCKED BY VIOLENT PROTESTS AS GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION PROBE FUELS UNREST
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks during a press conference following the EU-Albania Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels, Belgium, on May 26, 2026. (Daniel Gnap/NurPhoto)
“I want to make Albania a country that is a destination to be envied in the region, and this project is part of this effort,” Rama said Monday.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Affinity Partners and SPAK for comment.
Protests by Albanian citizens and nonprofit groups began in May when large, barbed-wire-topped fences were erected at the proposed site, preventing locals and tourists from accessing the beach. On Sunday, protesters assembled outside government offices to demand an end to the project as well as Rama’s resignation.
Jared Kushner speaks during the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19, 2026. Kushner is facing pushback in Albania over a luxury development project. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Following Sunday’s protests, footage emerged showing private security guards appearing to assault and drag a protester along a cliff. Some guards allegedly threatened other demonstrators who were attempting to remove fences and halt construction.
The licenses of two private security companies were revoked following the incident. Meanwhile, around 15 protesters have been charged, and the local police chief has been stripped of his duties.
Politics
NBC News will put ‘Kornacki Cam’ on the L.A. mayoral, California gubernatorial races
After the polls close in California on Tuesday, NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki will just be getting started.
Since December, the khaki-clad vote-counting guru has been going live and uninterrupted on streaming platforms to provide results and analysis of every special election and even some state Senate contests.
The stream — called the Kornacki Cam — provides unadulterated number crunching without any pundits weighing in. Rather than getting updates that last a few minutes, Kornacki provides continuous real-time results until the last available total is counted.
“This all happens in full view,” Kornacki said Monday in a phone interview. “The audience gets to see the whole thing. They get to see the buildup, the anticipation, the payoff.”
In the 10 Kornacki Cam sessions streamed by NBC News so far, 19 million viewers have sampled them across all platforms. The coverage — consisting of Kornacki, his Big Board, his producer and a Stedicam operator — is available on YouTube, NBCNews.com, the NBC News app and the division’s social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
The Kornacki Cam will focus on the primaries for Los Angeles mayor, California and several congressional districts, shortly after the state’s polls close at 8 p.m. Pacific. NBC News has its own decision desk, which the network said has called the results of 70% of the 2026 elections ahead of the Associated Press.
In a Monday chat with The Times, here are the trends Kornacki says he’ll be looking for on the night.
Polling in mayoral races is typically pretty unreliable. What do you make of the contest based on what you’ve seen?
You don’t always have super-competitive mayoral elections and they’re not all created equal. It’s not quite like a presidential election so you just don’t have a wealth of data to draw on for expectations either.
I’ve seen the polling you’ve seen. It suggests that of the three candidates (Mayor Karen Bass, reality TV star Spencer Pratt and City Council member Nithya Raman), Bass is in the best position to get into the runoff. It also suggests that Spencer Pratt has had the most positive movement in the last month or so of the campaign. But we go in knowing there will be volatility and I’m open to any and all possibilities.
Spencer Pratt is an unusual candidate who has been able to take up a lot of oxygen in the race. Is there a hidden vote for him that people might not be eager to admit to pollsters?
You can look at the city and know where to look for whether Pratt is having a big night. The San Fernando Valley is gonna be more than a third of the vote, probably close to 40%. If he gets in the general election, he wants to be winning there by a big margin. If it’s not happening there for Pratt, I don’t think it’s happening anywhere else. Karen Bass is going to rely on central and South L.A., with probably a third of the vote coming out of those two places. Those should be her bulwarks. The Westside, I think could be more of a toss-up. There’s a fair chunk of the vote there.
We don’t do a ton of mayoral races around the country. So we’re still trying to figure out exactly how detailed we’re going to be able to zoom in, at the neighborhood level and the precinct level.
Turnouts usually are low for Los Angeles mayoral races. Will this year be different?
This mayoral race has received a lot more national attention than 2022. So my thought is that the turnout would be higher, just based on that. But this is something that is resonating nationally because Pratt has that celebrity factor. The number was 646,000 (total votes) for 2022. So that’s something we’ll be following — are we trending over or under that?
And what will be the best indicators for the gubernatorial race?
The place that I kind of got circled here is Orange County. In the last two sort of major statewide elections, it was the first to report out (its) vote. At 8:06 p.m local time in California, in 2024, Orange County reported out half of its vote, right? So you’re getting, you know, you’re getting hundreds of thousands of votes, potentially, from this enormous county within, potentially within 10 minutes of polls closing. There were a couple others — the Central Valley, and we got a good chunk of Merced and Fresno quickly.
So how long are we going to have to wait for a result on Tuesday night?
One of the other things that just surrounds everything in California, whether it’s the mayor’s race, or governor’s race, or anything else, is nothing is definitive in the first hour or so after the polls close. We’re probably realistically looking at a days or even weeks-long process of getting all the vote counted.
I know it drives many people nuts. Without editorializing on that, it’s just a fact that they can get out of about two-thirds of their vote on election night, and if the races aren’t clear and definitive, then you’re generally in for a pretty long haul.
We do know in California that they’re not going (to count) nonstop until they get a result. They’re going to then start doing updates as they process and count the remaining vote by mail, which is usually a considerable pile in a lot of these places. The vote by mail in California can continue coming in for seven days after the election.
So do you think your coverage reflects a shift in what the consumer wants? We already know how fragmented the audience is. Are there now enough political junkies who want the pure uncut stuff?
I’ve been doing this about 20 years, and when I would tell people that I reported on politics for a living, they either moved away from me or changed the subject. And now, you know, I found the last, you know, 10 years or something, has just totally changed. People come up to me, even if they don’t know I work in politics, and they want to talk politics. Everybody seems into it whatever side they’re on.
Politics
Video: Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public
new video loaded: Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public
transcript
transcript
Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public
Utah district judge, Tony Graf, rejected the defense’s bid to close the hearings in the Charlie Kirk murder case. The defendant, Tyler J. Robinson, is accused of fatally shooting Mr. Kirk, the conservative activist.
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A party seeking to close a preliminary hearing must show that adverse publicity traceable to the opening hearing poses a realistic likelihood of prejudice to a fair trial. Public access to the judicial — to judicial proceedings also serve in an important role in maintaining confidence in the fairness and transparency of the judicial process. This court finds these showings have not been made here.
By Meg Felling
June 1, 2026
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