Donald Trump emerged as the winner of the New Hampshire primary, where Republicans voted for their preferred presidential candidate, results showed on Jan. 23.
Trump, who served as president between 2017 and 2021, is currently ahead in the polls to become the Republican nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. If nominated as the Republican nominee, Trump would once again face incumbent President Joe Biden in the November presidential election.
Donald Trump was also the winner in the first-of-the-nation Republican caucus in Iowa on Jan. 16, handily defeating his opponents, including former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
While the Republican nominee will be officially chosen during the Republican National Convention in July, state caucuses and primaries influence the eventual choice.
The result of the November presidential election is expected to influence the course of Russia's war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 19.
"If the policy of the next president – whoever he is – will be different toward Ukraine, colder or more inward-oriented, if there will be more focus on domestic policy... then I think these signals will greatly affect the course of the war in Ukraine," Zelensky said.
Earlier this week, President Zelensky invited Trump to visit Kyiv to demonstrate Trump's ability to bring an end to the war with Russia within 24 hours - as Trump previously claimed he would.
Trump has repeatedly said that the war would not have happened if he was still in power in Washington, and that he would bring it to an immediate end if voted back in because he has what he described as "a good relationship" with both Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“He is very welcome to come here, but I think he can not end the war in 24 hours, without giving our land to Putin,” President Zelensky previously stated in response to Trump's claims.
Questions remain as to whether Trump's name will appear on certain states' ballots. In December 2023, the states of Maine and Colorado, removed Trump from the ballot, ruling that he cannot be considered as a candidate because of the 14th Amendment's "insurrectionist ban" and his involvement in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Supreme Court is slated to rule on the decision in the coming months.
Olena Goncharova
