Haley enters the South Carolina contest off a third-place finish in Iowa, behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and an 11 percentage-point loss to the 45th president in New Hampshire.

Washington: Former President Donald Trump has emerged as the clear frontrunner in the upcoming South Carolina Republican primary, according to a poll conducted by American Promise and the Tyson Group. The poll revealed that Trump enjoys a commanding lead over his potential challenger, Nikki Haley, who served as the state’s governor from 2011 to 2017. With the primary set to take place on February 24, Trump has secured the support of 58% of likely voters, while Haley trails behind with 31% support. The remaining 11% of voters are still undecided.

Interestingly, among self-identified Democrats, Haley holds a slight lead with 49% support compared to Trump’s 5%. However, it is important to note that the GOP primary is open to registered Republicans only, making it unlikely that Democrats will have a significant impact on the outcome.

The poll also shed light on the favorability ratings of both candidates among South Carolina voters. Trump emerged as the more popular choice, with nearly seven in 10 respondents expressing a favorable view of him. Of those respondents, 44% said their view of Trump was strongly favorable. In contrast, Haley garnered a favorable rating from 56% of respondents, with only 23% saying their view of her was strongly favorable.

Haley enters the South Carolina contest off a third-place finish in Iowa, behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and an 11 percentage-point loss to the 45th president in New Hampshire.

Friday’s poll was the first major survey of the first-in-the-South primary released since the New Hampshire result. Haley has maintained she doesn’t need the support of the “political elite,” and that her lack of support stems from her previous actions to keep the South Carolina government “accountable.”

Meanwhile, Trump has boasted about his support on Haley’s home turf and invited his South Carolina endorsers to appear with him at his New Hampshire rallies to send a message to his rival.

Trump ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 mn in defamation case

Meanwhile, Trump should pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defamatory statements he made against her in 2019, a Manhattan federal jury has determined. The nine New Yorkers – two women and seven men – ordered Trump on Friday to pay Carroll $11 million for a reputational repair program, $7.3 million in other compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages. The total is more than eight times what Carroll asked for in her initial lawsuit, Xinhua news agency reported.

On a Truth Social post, Trump blasted the verdict as “absolutely ridiculous” and said he would appeal the decision. Friday’s verdict marked the second time Carroll won damages from Trump at trial.

Last May, a separate Manhattan federal jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages, including nearly $3 million for defamation, after they found that Trump sexually abused Carroll and then defamed her in 2022 for public statements he made disparaging her and denying the allegations.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleged that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim.