Trump attacks E Jean Carroll as he prepares to testify in defamation trial: Live updates

Nikki Haley is the last Republican candidate standing between Donald Trump and the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

When she announced her run on 14 February 2023, she became the first woman of colour to be a major candidate for the GOP nomination and the first woman governor to run for the top job.

As the last bulwark of the old pre-2016 Republican establishment standing in Trump’s way, the former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor has vowed to remain in the race until at least the primary in her home state on 24 February, but polling has her around 30 points behind Trump there.

Top state officials, such as current governor Henry McMcMaster and senator Tim Scott, who Ms Haley appointed to the Senate and who previously dropped out of the presidential race, are backing Trump in what some see as a cynical attempt to elevate themselves for jobs in a possible second Trump administration in January 2025.

Here’s Gustaf Kilander on her chances.

Here’s Holly Baxter on Trump betraying his true fears during his angry victory speech on Tuesday night in which he repeatedly attack Haley for not dropping out and behaving, as he saw it, as though she had won.

This is a blow to Trump as he attempts to appeal to blue collar America by insisting President Biden is not the right man to steer the country’s economy back to pre-pandemic prosperity.

The Republican senator for Maine is facing an onslaught of criticism after arguing on X that Trump should be on the ballot in her state, rejecting Shenna Bellows’ decision to exclude him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits insurrectionists from returning to public office.

You may remember Collins heavily hinting that she would vote for Trump’s first impeachment in the Senate before bottling it and saying she was sure he’d learned his lesson.

A deadly riot, a second impeachment and 91 felony charges later, history is not looking kindly on her contention.

And nor are her fellow X users.

Maine’s top court declined to weigh in on whether former president Donald Trump can stay on the state’s ballot on Wednesday evening, keeping intact a judge’s decision that the US Supreme Court must first rule on a similar case in Colorado.

Democratic secretary of state Shenna Bellows concluded that Trump didn’t meet ballot qualifications under the insurrection clause in the US Constitution but a judge put that decision on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision on the similar case in Colorado.

In a unanimous decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court dismissed Bellows’ appeal of the order requiring her to await the US Supreme Court decision before withdrawing, modifying or upholding her decision to keep Trump off the primary ballot on Super Tuesday.

“The Secretary of State suggests that there is irreparable harm because a delay in certainty about whether Trump’s name should appear on the primary ballot will result in voter confusion. This uncertainty is, however, precisely what guides our decision not to undertake immediate appellate review in this particular case,” the court said.

Bellows’ decision in December that Trump was ineligible made her the first election official to ban the Republican front-runner from the ballot under the 14th Amendment. In Colorado, the state supreme court reached the same conclusion.The timelines are tight as Maine’s 5 March primary approaches.

The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments on the Colorado case on 8 February and Maine has already begun mailing overseas ballots.The nation’s highest court has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office. Some legal scholars say the post-Civil War clause applies to Trump for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and encouraging his backers to storm the US Capitol after he lost to Joe Biden.

Trump contends Bellows should have recused herself and that she was biased against him. Trump said her actions disenfranchised voters in Maine and were part of a broader effort to keep him off the ballot.

Bellows, who was elected by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, said she was bound by state law to make a determination after several residents challenged Trump’s right to be on the primary ballot. She put her decision on Trump’s ballot eligibility on hold pending judicial proceedings, and vowed that she would abide by a court’s ultimate ruling.

Here’s Martha McHardy’s report.

Also on social media last night, Trump was up late raging at the woman he will come face to face with once again in a Lower Manhattan courtroom today, again firing out a deluge of old social media posts of hers he disapproves of and claiming never to have even met her before.

Here he is raging about having to return to New York “for a trial based on False Accusations, from perhaps decades ago”, adding: “The Federal Judge in this Second Biden Political Opponent ‘Trial’ is extraordinarily hostile to me – Sadly, and I don’t know why, a 100% Trump Hater. He knows I did nothing wrong, but is looking to do a number on me. Only in America!”

Here’s our man playing the mob boss and issuing a Mafia-style decree banishing anyone who has made a campaign contribution to his rival from his orbit.

“We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!” he frothed last night.

Mr Trump defeated Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary by an 11-point margin. Ever since he jumped into the race, Mr Trump has maintained a sizable lead among his GOP competitors. His recent victories in Iowa and New Hampshire have underscored his popularity among Republicans, but they have also uncovered some weaknesses.

Kelly Rissman takes a deeper look at the results:

The former president appeared to threaten his former UN ambassador after she vowed to continue her fight for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“Just a little note to Nikki, she is not going to win, but if she did she would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes. I could tell you five reasons why already, not big reasons, little stuff that she doesn’t want to talk about, but she will be under investigation in minutes,” said Mr Trump to a crowd of his supporters on Tuesday night.

“And so would Ron have been, but he decided to get out.”