Gina Rinehart at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on Saturday
Article by Matthew Cranston, United States correspondent courtesy of the Australian Financial Review.
Washington| Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart backed Donald Trump to be the next US president, declaring his tough leadership outmatched contenders including Nikki Haley, who vowed she would stay in the race despite losing her home state primary.
The former president claimed a 60 per cent to 40 per cent victory in South Carolina after a bitter fight between the two Republican presidential candidates that now risks dividing the party in the lead-up to November’s general election.
Mr Trump, who labelled himself “a political dissident” and refused to mention Ms Haley by name, is now on track to pass the 1215-delegate threshold required for the party’s nomination by mid-March.
Ms Haley said she would stay in the race until at least Super Tuesday in early March, when 15 states run their primaries.
“Forty per cent is not some tiny group,” Ms Haley said about her approximate vote share in Saturday’s (Sunday AEDT) primary. “There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative.”
Dressed in Republican-red colours, Mrs Rinehart sat listening in her second-row seat of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference – which has a listed cost of $15,000 – as Mr Trump delivered his hour-and-25-minute speech accusing President Joe Biden of incompetence on the world stage.
The speech was one of the best she had heard from a politician, the billionaire Australian said.
“He has won the last nine best speeches given here at CPAC and I think we just heard the tenth. It was a privilege to watch it,” Mrs Rinehart told The Australian Financial Review on the sidelines of the conference in Maryland.
The iron ore magnate, whose wealth is now estimated at $37.8 billion, said Mr Trump’s stance among world leaders had galvanised support for the former president.
“He is authentic and brave,” she said. “To me, it’s about how we need him for the world.
“The other leaders couldn’t stand up to the problems worldwide like Trump could.”
Mr Trump leads Ms Haley, a former ambassador to the UN, in the national polls by 60 points and Mr Biden by 2 points.
His momentum has gained pace after winning the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries in January, and despite facing 91 criminal charges he has raised his chances of becoming only the second president to stage a re-election comeback after being out of office.
“We got double the number of votes that has ever been received in the great state of South Carolina, so it’s a record times two,” Mr Trump said, claiming the victory minutes after polls closed.
“There’s never been a spirit like this. And I just want to say that I have never seen the Republican Party so unified, as it is right now.”
Ms Haley had been trailing in the South Carolina polls by 30 points despite having far outspent Mr Trump in advertising, pumping nearly $US15 million ($22.9 million) into ads ahead of the primary compared with the $US1.3 million from the Trump camp.
Ms Haley declared the fight between her and Mr Trump was not over.
