Biden and Trump to face off in US election rematch

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have become the presumptive nominees for the 2024 presidential election, setting up a rematch between the two men four years after their first contest.

Both candidates secured more than half of the Republican and Democratic delegates respectively needed for the nomination on Tuesday night, as primaries were held in Georgia, Mississippi, Hawaii and Washington state.

As an incumbent president, Mr Biden was expected to easily sweep the Democratic nomination, and has won every race other than a draw in the tiny US territory of American Samoa.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, has won all but two of the Republican votes, losing to Nikki Haley only in Washington DC and Vermont.

Mrs Haley dropped out of the contest after the fifteen primary votes on Super Tuesday, declaring that the “time has now come” to suspend her campaign.

Her presidential bid continued much longer than those of Mr Trump’s other rivals – many of whom quit the contest to endorse him. Mrs Haley instead urged her supporters to “always make up your own mind”.

Mr Biden secured his party’s nomination after the primary in Georgia on Tuesday, which pushed his total number of delegates beyond the 1,968 required to win the contest.

Mr Trump won in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington, securing the required 1,215 delegates around 3am GMT on Wednesday.

As the presumptive nominees, Mr Biden and Mr Trump must now wait for their party’s national conventions this summer to officially receive the nomination and enter the general election campaign.

This year’s primary season concluded more quickly than usual, due to Mr Trump’s dominance of the Republican race – winning by significant margins in all of the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Although incumbent presidents usually win the nomination of their party without serious challengers, the party in opposition usually sees a contest between candidates who have not served in the White House.

Mr Trump is the second president in US history to be ousted from office and return at a future election, giving him the status of a de-facto incumbent.

Mr Biden and Mr Trump’s early status as presumptive nominees will increase pressure on the President to debate his predecessor before the scheduled presidential television debates in the autumn.

Mr Trump has already called for an event to be organised, and said he would attend even if it was run by the “corrupt” Democratic National Committee.

The latest polling suggests that Mr Trump is currently winning in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. If an election was called immediately, he would likely win it.

However, the former president must first navigate a series of criminal trials, some of which are scheduled to begin before polling day on November 5.

The first of the cases, over allegations of falsifying business records relating to the porn star Stormy Daniels, is set to begin in New York on March 25.

Mr Biden is facing poor ratings in national opinion polls, with voters reporting that they think he is too old to serve again, and that they have felt the impacts of persistent inflation in the US.

Welcoming the results on Tuesday, Mr Biden’s campaign released a statement from the president emphasising his message that Mr Trump’s campaign is based on “resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America”.

“Voters now have a choice to make about the future of this country,” he said.

“Are we going to stand up and defend our democracy or let others tear it down? Will we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms or let extremists take them away?

“Will we finally make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes – or will we allow corporate greed to run rampant on the backs of the middle class?”

Mr Trump insisted in a victory statement that the Republican Party is strong and united behind him.

“We are now, under Crooked Joe Biden, a Third World Nation, which uses the Injustice System to go after his political opponent, ME!” he wrote on Truth Social.

“But fear not, we will not fail, we will take back our once great Country.”