Trump and Biden are already considered rivals in the general elections

Just 400,000 people have voted in the Republican primaries in two rural states. But so much donald trump as Joe Biden They are already presenting themselves as their parties’ candidates.

Trump’s sweeping victory Tuesday in New Hampshire, an independent-minded state where he was seen as more vulnerable than any other, was a turning point in the rhetoric of both Democrats and Republicans.

“It is already evident that Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate. And my message to the country is that the risks could not be greater,” President Joe Biden said hours after Trump’s victory.

Trump’s team agreed with the assessment, although the former president himself continued to remain furious at his rival Nikki Haley’s refusal to give up.

“I say the general election starts tonight.”said Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s former rival and now sycophant, standing next to the former president during the event in which he proclaimed his victory in New Hampshire. “And this man will win easily.”

Such boasting is just a sample of what the next 10 months will be like. The two parties are mounting colossal political operations backed by billions of dollars in advertising for what is almost certain: a rematch between the current president and his predecessor.

It is an unwanted confrontation for many voters and some elected officials. Both Biden and Trump have strong detractors in their own parties and glaring policy weaknesses. But no Republican candidate in history has won the first two primaries, as Trump did, and then lost the candidacy. And Biden, who won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire without even appearing on the ballot, faces only token opposition.

In the next few hours, Biden will be the keynote speaker at a congress of the UAW auto union, seeking to win the worker vote in the crucial undecided states of the central north.

Trump travels on Friday to speak to Republicans in Phoenix, Arizona, a swing state that Biden won by 10,000 votes in 2020. But as much as Trump’s team wants to point its guns at Biden, he still has a Republican rival to beat.

“Could someone please explain to Nikki that she lost, that she lost by a lot.”Trump wrote on his social network. “He also lost Iowa BY A LOT last week. He suffered, as the non-lying press says, crushing defeats.”

Haley’s team vowed to stay in the fight for the nomination, despite the looming prospect of an embarrassing defeat in her own state of South Carolina on February 24.

“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It’s not the last one in the nation”Haley said Tuesday before leaving. “This campaign is far from over. “There are dozens of states left.”