Thursday Briefing

Nikki Haley after announcing on Wednesday that she was suspending her campaign. Donald Trump had rolled to wins on Super Tuesday.Credit…Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Haley dropped out, ushering in a Trump vs. Biden rematch

Nikki Haley announced yesterday that she was ending her presidential campaign, clearing the way for another general election contest between President Biden and former President Donald Trump, an outcome many Americans had hoped to avoid. She had come to represent the last, best chance for Republicans hoping to turn the page on Trump’s divisive brand of politics.

Haley, Trump’s first ambassador to the U.N. and a former governor of South Carolina, had tried to paint her former boss as an aging, mentally unsound agent of chaos. But she was unable to loosen Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, and lost in all but one state in Super Tuesday’s elections.

Haley pointedly declined to endorse Trump when she announced she was leaving the race, challenging him to win over her moderate supporters. In his own statement posted to social media before Haley’s speech, Trump said she had been “trounced.”

More U.S. politics:

• Trump’s crushing victories on Tuesday masked quiet weaknesses.

• Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a powerful figure in Republican politics who once denounced Trump, endorsed the former president.

• Americans are coming to terms with thereality of a second Biden-Trump race.

• Biden’s most significant Democratic challenger, Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, also dropped out of the race.

Gaza cease-fire talks stalled

Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas have stalled, according to several people briefed on the conversations, dimming hopes that a deal will be reached before the start of Ramadan.